Re: C++ – never classy
Someone Else: "Well then, I bet you're crying in your beer that C++ has effectively deprecated #defines with modules...."
No, the Burroughs defines were argued about when they were first included. They were much more powerful than the weak C defines, with several levels.
It was very much text-based processing along the lines of the General Purpose Macrogenerator (which one of my language teachers worked on).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_macro_processor#General_Purpose_Macrogenerator
Amazing what you find. Here is an article by Andrew Herbert (who I knew at ISO ODP meetings) on GPM:
https://www.computerconservationsociety.org/software/elliott903/more903/Manuals/CCS%20Resurrection%20GPM%20Article.pdf
Strachey then developed CPL, which became BCPL, B, and C.
A couple of us Burroughs people did a language called SDL on the Apple II which was a cut down (because it had to be) of Burroughs and Elliott ALGOL. The main language designer did not have define # in it – he invented a rather neat macro mechanism to directly put in 6502 assembler code for things not worth doing in the language. However, in a bigger system (which we have these days) you would put such systems stuff directly in the language.
Now here's the thing. People who have used such other languages and systems seem to be able to move on. Sadly the same is not true for C and C++ people who seem to become rusted on to the deficiencies and bad ideas in C and C++.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
