musicmatzes blog

I already wrote about the project me and some friends at my university are currently doing. One of my team mates came up with the idea of porting the codebase from C to C++, yesterday the appropriate issue was opened Yesterday, to discuss it. I'm not sure what to think.

The idea is to port the codebase as soon as possible to C++. I do not like this idea entirely, as I think the port should be done after the project phase, but not within. I consider myself at a newbie-like level when it comes to C++ and I think other project members feel almost the same, maybe better, but not on an expert level or whatsoever. Given the fact that we're already running out of time, I think a port of the (30K LOC) codebase would quite take some time and would cause the project to be delayed even more.

So I'm trying to push back on that part. A port after the project phase would be another question, which I want to talk about here.

First of all: I don't think a port to another language is required, as I consider the codebase as very clean and carefully designed. The architecture is good, the code is well documented, the abstractions are clearly defined. A port to another programming language would have a certain level of impact on this, but I think we are able to handle that. I see the improvements which could be made by a port to a OOP(-like) language, though.

Having inheritance build into the language, having a template-like system in the language and having methods, virtual functions and the like would cause some redesign but also some improvements.

My project mate suggested C++ as language. Now, the careful reader knows that I don't like C++ that much. Some of my points are maybe valid, some not. But well, this is a very opinion-based topic, and I won't go into further detail or discussion about that topic here. What I think, though, is that it would be nice to port to a language which gives us more power (simplifying to the terminus “power” here to refer to possibilities to do abstractions, building complexity and the like) and security. I think C++ gives us more power about the code, which is very good. I don't think C++ gives us more security, meaning secure code. I think one can very simply do the same mistakes in C++ as in C, speaking of semantics of the code. For example you can create data races, thread related problems or memory corruption in C++ as well as in C.

That given, I consider C++ as an improvement to the code, but not the best possibility. My opinion is currently that a port to Rust would be a much better option, as Rust gives us memory safety, prevents us from doing nasty things with memory, including all the thread stuff. Given the fact that none of us is able to write Rust on an expert level by now, the question of doing the port within the project phase or after is answered automatically. Also, Rust is not stable yet. I would at least wait for version 1.0 of the Rust language before doing the port, possibly saving some time of Rust-to-Rust porting.

I still don't think a port is necessary and I really like the code we produce. I can see the advantages over staying in C, but for me personally, the disadvantages overweight by now. This may change in future, but for now and for the rest of the project phase, this is my opinion on the topic.

The discussion on github is not done yet, of course. I will carefully propose my opinion there, as this has become a very explosive topic by now. This article was just written to be a short overview over the topic and also to be a summary of my thoughts.

tags: #programming #c #rust #c++ #software