Orthodox C++ (sometimes referred as C+) is minimal subset of C++ that improves C, but avoids all unnecessary things from so called Modern C++. It's exactly opposite of what Modern C++ suppose to be.
Back in late 1990 we were also modern-at-the-time C++ hipsters, and we used latest features. We told everyone also they should use those features too. Over time we learned it's unnecesary to use some language features just because they are there, or features we used proved to be bad (like RTTI, exceptions, and streams), or it backfired by unnecessary code complexity. If you think this is nonsense, just wait few more years and you'll hate Modern C++ too ("Why I don't spend time with Modern C++ anymore" archived LinkedIn article).
Code base written with Orthodox C++ limitations will be easer to understand, simpler, and it will build with older compilers. Projects written in Orthodox C++ subset will be more acceptable by other C++ projects because subset used by Orthodox C++ is unlikely to violate adopter's C++ subset preferences.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("hello, world\n");
return 0;
}
- C-like C++ is good start, if code doesn't require more complexity don't add unnecessary C++ complexities. In general case code should be readable to anyone who is familiar with C language.
- Don't do this, the end of "design rationale" in Orthodox C++ should be immedately after "Quite simple, and it is usable. EOF".
- Don't use exceptions.
- Don't use RTTI.
- Don't use C++ runtime wrapper for C runtime includes (
<cstdio>,<cmath>, etc.), use C runtime instead (<stdio.h>,<math.h>, etc.) - Don't use stream (
<iostream>,<stringstream>, etc.), use printf style functions instead. - Don't use anything from STL that allocates memory, unless you don't care about memory management.
- Don't use metaprogramming excessively for academic masturbation. Use it in moderation, only where necessary, and where it reduces code complexity.
- Wary of any features introduced in current standard C++, ideally wait for improvements of those feature in next iteration of standard. Example
constexprfrom C++11 became usable in C++14 (per Jason Turner cppbestpractices.com curator)
Due to lag of adoption of C++ standard by compilers, OS distributions, etc. it's usually not possible to start using new useful language features immediately. General guideline is: if current year is C++year+5 then it's safe to start selectively using C++year's features. For example, if standard is C++11, and current year >= 2016 then it's probably safe. If standard required to compile your code is C++17 and year is 2016 then obviously you're practicing "Resume Driven Development" methodology. If you're doing this for open source project, then you're not creating something others can use.
- Any C source that compiles with C++ compiler.
- DOOM 3 BFG
- Qt (when built with no-rtti, no-exceptions)
- dear imgui
- bgfx