As Stroustrup mentioned in "The Design and Evolution of C++" generic purpose programming language shall be suitable for different users. It means it has to provide number of features which possibly useful only by small subset of users. It does not mean that complex shall be the language built-in data type, but some fundamental features, which can not be implemented as a library extensions, shall be.
An example of such feature in C++ is C macro. C macroses migrated to C++ only due to compatibility with C. C macro is bad. However it is very useful in number of cases and used in number of projects by many people (ever in such C++ projects as Boost).
I just faced one more link about C macro in D programming language C macro in D programming language. I quickly recall hot debates about GOTO operator. Actually useful in real life, but maybe not so beautiful. It greatly helps to make code clean (e.g. move error handling code to the end of function in C program). I think about Linux and FreeBSD kernels and OpenSSL as an example of great codding style in plain C. And they do use goto and macro in regular way. From other side constructions like
do {
/* do something */;
break;
/* do something else */
break;
/* ........ */
} while (0)
looks much uglier and confusing.
I believe such "ugly", but very useful, things like goto and macro shall stay in modern programming languages. If some people do not like them, then they can do not use them. For instance, C++ exceptions is still frequently criticized, so some project simply do not use it.
An example of such feature in C++ is C macro. C macroses migrated to C++ only due to compatibility with C. C macro is bad. However it is very useful in number of cases and used in number of projects by many people (ever in such C++ projects as Boost).
I just faced one more link about C macro in D programming language C macro in D programming language. I quickly recall hot debates about GOTO operator. Actually useful in real life, but maybe not so beautiful. It greatly helps to make code clean (e.g. move error handling code to the end of function in C program). I think about Linux and FreeBSD kernels and OpenSSL as an example of great codding style in plain C. And they do use goto and macro in regular way. From other side constructions like
do {
/* do something */;
break;
/* do something else */
break;
/* ........ */
} while (0)
looks much uglier and confusing.
I believe such "ugly", but very useful, things like goto and macro shall stay in modern programming languages. If some people do not like them, then they can do not use them. For instance, C++ exceptions is still frequently criticized, so some project simply do not use it.
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