Something about my ideal C/C++

[wij]

Last time talked with David, we had a differnet view of assembly (might be just
differnet wording).
Then I think now, C/C++ is essentially not very different from assembly, for
example, if we use bits-specified types:

int16_t a=2;
int8_t b=a;
uint32_t c=a;

Such coding is not really different form assembly. But if we use int/char/long:

int a=2;
char b=a;
long c=a;

Looked better for portibility by naming the 'registers' differently and let
the language to dicede. (Assembly can also achieve some level of portibility,
just not as widely as C). Others should be mostly function calling convention.
What else?

I am not saying assembly is better than high level language, but that assembly
is not that scary, esp. if tools are as rich (one of my commercial DOS app. is
still continuously runging today for more than 25 years every minute (a server,
even thunder strikes is no problem).

If I look at the 'high level' language now, I feel the real thing is the removal
of 'comment' and thus (much) lesser routine codes. I can only explain this from
physiological view that human working memory (short term memory) is very
limited. IOW, features of high level languages may just be human factors:
Too many 'irrelevant' codes (depending on the purpose of the viewer) on screen
will cause problems for human. That is what I now thought, probably not really
some other reasons.
To verify this view, suppose we have a large (or high resolution) screen, or
something like HTML hyper-link that allow us to see the detail at will...
at least, lots of the view of what source code might change, and thus the
language.

By using high level (shorter) languages, the first thing is the model. What is
the model of C/C++?. No language I know is precise about the model.
The 2nd thing, the language is inevidently explained in TM language, i.e. the
key part (or 'mnemonic') of the language (still) has to be interpreted in TM
language (if you really think it is something else. There will be problems, and
new language/keywords may add new problems).
The 3rd. problem is that complexity does not go away. It does not disapper
because you call it 'exception' (the bad for 'exception' is that it disable you to use 'exception' in
thinking) or whatever, the real exception (or whatever)
will go way or thus handled. What can appear in assembly will (mostly) also
appear in high level language.

I like to use higher level language, just to express some possible properties
about the 'ideal high level language' (from assembly) I can hope for.

[Mad Hamish]

Post by wij
Last time talked with David, we had a differnet view of assembly (might be just
differnet wording).
Then I think now, C/C++ is essentially not very different from assembly, for

Have fun building an enterprise level web-app in assembly

Post by wij
int16_t a=2;
int8_t b=a;
uint32_t c=a;
int a=2;
char b=a;
long c=a;

Variable definition is a very small part of a language, and most
languages have large standard libraries which provide a lot of
functionality

Post by wij
To verify this view, suppose we have a large (or high resolution) screen, or
something like HTML hyper-link that allow us to see the detail at will...
at least, lots of the view of what source code might change, and thus the
language.

That's part of why you split things into functions
you see
list.sort()
and you can go to the sort function to see how it's sorted if it's
relevant (say you're investigating something not being sorted
correctly or the sort being slow)

Post by wij
By using high level (shorter) languages, the first thing is the model. What is
the model of C/C++?. No language I know is precise about the model.

C++ supports multiple models

Post by wij
The 3rd. problem is that complexity does not go away. It does not disapper
because you call it 'exception' (the bad for 'exception' is that it disable you to use 'exception' in
thinking) or whatever, the real exception (or whatever)
will go way or thus handled. What can appear in assembly will (mostly) also
appear in high level language.

The complexity can be managed more easily and a lot of things are
handled automatically by the compiler or run time

Post by wij
I like to use higher level language, just to express some possible properties
about the 'ideal high level language' (from assembly) I can hope for.