Celebrating 30th Anniversary of the First C++ Compiler: Let's Find Bugs In It

New submitter Andrey_Karpov writes: Cfront is a C++ compiler which came into existence in 1983 and was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup ("30 YEARS OF C++"). At that time it was known as "C with Classes". Cfront had a complete parser, symbol tables, and built a tree for each class, function, etc. Cfront was based on CPre. Cfront defined the language until circa 1990. Many of the obscure corner cases in C++ are related to the Cfront implementation limitations. The reason is that Cfront performed translation from C++ to C. In short, Cfront is a sacred artifact for a C++ programmer. So I just couldn't help checking such a project [for bugs].

Comments

Re:what to be thankful for 30 years on

[bobbied]

But it's small and fast when you use it right..

C++ is but a tool we use to get our jobs done. Every tool has it's limitations, provisos, flaws and a purpose. When a tool is placed in the hands of a skilled craftsman using it for it's intended purpose it produces excellent results, but if it's used by somebody without the necessary skills, or for a task it is not designed to do, the results can be horrid. C++ may be dated, but for some problem domains it remains the tool of choice. You don't write device drivers in Java for a reason.

The wise programmer keeps as many tools in his tool box as possible. He sharpens them and maintains them and keeps adding the new and useful tools he finds. He knows the intended purpose and best use of his tools and selects the appropriate tools for the job at hand. All to often, young bucks show up to work armed with only ONE tool shiny and new, thinking that it is the only tool they need for any job. They deride the old salts who use the "old" tools well and make fun of the well warn, old tools they use. "Use this new shiny tool," they say, "It's the only tool you need." While the old experienced guys chuckle and shake their heads, remembering when they too said similar things and try to teach the younger ones that there is value in putting tools in the box...

Re:what to be thankful for 30 years on

[Anonymous Coward]

it is an unmanaged language that gives low level access without adequate tools to guard that access.

Uh, have you heard of smart pointers? Or RAII? Have you used C++ in the last 5-10 years... at all, actually?

Re: Imagine if it had never been done

[__aaclcg7560]

Security was never the primary design goal for C, UNIX or the Internet. The technology for the last half-century got "foisted on this world" because it worked and worked quite well.

Re:C backend would not impose limitations

[lgw]

Translating to C would not impose a limitation on the language features of C++

Practical limitations, for one guy banging out a language implementation in a hurry. C syntax was kept intact wherever possible, so that no translation would be needed. Which in turn led to quick adoption of C++ by C coders (which doomed C++ code to forever be ruined by C-style coding).

Re:C++11 is almost a different language

[david_thornley]

Yes, and the pre-C++11 std::auto_ptr was a confusing piece of crap.

Which is why you'll never get one through a code review at my company. std::unique_ptr does what auto_ptr did, only much more elegantly. std::shared_ptr is also useful.

Isn't that the trade group that sues music fans? Oh wait, that's RIAA. But yes, I understand the advantages of automatic finalization.

I'm not sure you really do understand RAII, if you refer to it as "automatic finalization". It's far more useful than finalization in the languages I've seen that use it. It's a unified resource manager that can handle every type of resource uniformly.