Re: Is C++ used in life-critical systems?
"Jorgen Grahn" <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se>
To tell the truth, I am no longer in the field so I cannot say but 3
years ago IAR only supported EC++ (and arm tools also). It may have
changed.
It depends on whether customers asked for it :)
I wonder who would ask for a crippled version of C++? Surely not
someone with an existing C++ code base, and surely not someone with
an existing C code base who wants to move to C++.
Why not? Depends on what is left out. You do not need many features in the
embedded world. You do not need your codebase written for desktop/server
stuff either.
Looking at the IAR web page for their compiler
<http://www.iar.com/website1/1.0.1.0/467/1/>
I note that:
- they repeat the ancient Embedded C++ nonsense like "excluding
namespaces makes the runtime library significantly more efficient"
and (paraphrasing) "there's no point in implementing standard C++
because noone else does either"
That claim sounds fishy. But in general, namespaces is on my 'not needed'
list for embedded.
I would not cry if there was no standard lib either -- if templates are
supported so I can import my own library or any stl portions I'd happen to
like.
- ... but IAR in fact implements something they call "Extended
Embedded C++", which *does* include templates, namespaces and the
STL ... which places the compiler in some vague area between the
Embedded C++ and C++ languages. Weird.
Yeah, when I checked it the last time (~1.5 years ago) it looked perfectly
acceptable, except for the ridiculous price.