Re: Position of MS regarding the future C++ Standard
William DePalo [MVP VC++] wrote:
"Victor Bazarov" <v.Abazarov@comAcast.net> wrote in message
news:egdjjl$bop$1@news.datemas.de...
[..]
What I'm afraid the most is that the OS has to be made capable of
handling many CPUs, and if it isn't done right, all the time will be
spent pushing the thread around between processors, like balls in
a pinball machine, and it won't matter what language your program
is written it, they all will work slow (instead of all working at the
same relative speed as before, as they should).
This is one thing that I'm not worried about. It reminds me of the
line in "Field of dreams". If Intel builds an 80 core machine, the
o/s to exploit will come.
How will they come? From where? How many consumer o/s do you know
_today_ that actually compete? How many professional applications
do actually run on the "other" o/s[es]? Now, how long does it take
for an o/s to "come"? How long does it take for the rest of computer
market to get up to speed with that new o/s?
It doesn't take long to shut off the oxygen and watch folks abandon
popular technology in favour of one that is "just as good", yet well
supported. Cut off blood from a limb and in two hours it will start
rotting. After it has rotten, it would take much longer to restore
the blood flow and it can be impossible to salvage the limb. Cut off
the blood from the brain and the damage is irreversible in 5 minutes.
To make C# "just as good" all MS needs to do is to make C++ "just as
bad". The October 1917 revolution in Russia had a very simple, yet
very dangerous, premise: "why are there poor people? because there
are rich people. how do we get rid of poverty? by getting rid of
the rich people."
MS can be all for C++ Standard and work on a good compiler and do all
the right things, and on the other end of the campus it can work on
completely counteracting any positive movement about C++. By seeing
only one simptom you can never forecast the outcome well enough to
start doing something in time... I don't want to sound ominous.
V
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