[PD] C++ for reusable dsp lib - or better use C?

[Mathieu Bouchard]

Le 2012-02-25 à 01:58:00, katja a écrit :

> I'll do it the hard way, plain C. I've rewritten one of my own C++ 
> library classes into C by way of exercise and comparison. It does 
> exactly the same thing at the same speed, with not so sweet-looking 
> code. This doesn't cover all the C/C++ differences, but in the end, 
> everything can be solved in C one way or another.

It's not a strict matter of beauty of code. The reason why programmers 
talk so much about the beauty (or cleanliness) of the code, is because of 
the practical qualities. But the appreciation of beauty or cleanliness is 
something that evolves with time... depending on one's experience of what 
matters and what doesn't.

> In my (not so huge) coding experience, I've always noticed that code
> typing is the least time consuming aspect of a dsp project. To figure
> out a good concept takes longer. Testing and bug fixing takes longer.
> Optimization takes longer. I've once written an optimized FFT lib (in
> C). It took me a month if I remember well, and that was not because of
> all the code typing.

If you have to write twice more characters to do the same thing in C as in 
C++, then you will have to read twice more characters when you want to 
review the code, debug the code, or just re-understand the code later. If 
you optimise your code or reorganise your code, then you will need to read 
twice more AND rewrite twice more. But that's not that much compared to 
the effect of having to think about cluttered sentences of code.

That's just an example. Some C is the same length as the C++ equivalent. 
Some other C is 3, 4 or 5 times longer than the C++ equivalent, sometimes 
worse.

As a conclusion, a famous quote :

« There are two ways of constructing a software design; one way is to 
make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way 
is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The 
first method is far more difficult. »

  — Antony HOARE (alias Mr. QuickSort)

  ______________________________________________________________________
| Mathieu BOUCHARD ----- téléphone : +1.514.383.3801 ----- Montréal, QC