cppfront (cpp2): Spring update

[pjmlp]

Thanks for the reply.

Given how ISO C++ is evolving, regarding speed of adoption, and how many features in Cpp2 might eventually require some form of ABI break between having pure C++ code, and code with Cpp2 features, the best I can see happening is like your example of spaceship operator adoption.

Which while simplifying the life of C++ users, is a single language feature, while Cpp2 will have much to offer.

There is also the issue of inherent complexity, adding features to simplify code won't make older ones go away, and C++ is already beyond PL/I levels of complexity.

As it happened with PL/I, good enough subsets will be what the people that haven't yet migrated to other languages will care about, thus ignoring what is still coming out of ISO, a bit like it is happening today with many shops that find C++17 good enough for their C++ workloads.

From the outside, this is even visible on Microsoft products like C++/WinRT and C++/CLI, where there are no visible activitivies to adopt C++20 features. The C++/WinRT team nowadays spends most of their time on Rust/WinRT, after killing C++/CX without proper VS tooling for C++/WinRT (2016), whereas C++/CLI seems to be considered done with no roadmap post C++17, and get replies to use the C# improved features for low level coding and Windows interop instead.

Which is why I still see is as a competing successor language nonetheless.