why only C?

[Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar]

On Sun, Apr 3, 2011 at 8:17 PM, mohit verma <mohit89mlnc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi list,
>
> I have a very basic question.
>
> As far as i can decipher , we impose Object oriented paradigm in kernel
> space using C  : like using gates to allow only one way entry and binding
> functions to structures in a OOP fashion  and trying to make them private to
> that structure only  , encapsulation of one struct into another structure
> (and lots of features ) and itself  lots of kernel subsystem supports like
> driver interface and blah blah behaving like **objects** .......
>
> why dont we use some fully OOPs supportive language like JAVA or partial
> supportive language like  C++ to construct Linux Kernel????
>
> I don't  think that performance is the main reason behind all this . Is
> it??
>
> Thanks a lot in advance.
>
>
Read more or even google it.
Besides its Design decision by Linus Torvalds

Here is the historic mail explaining what he said

*From: Linus Torvalds* [email blocked]
Subject: Re: Compiling C++ kernel module + Makefile
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 22:46:23 -0800 (PST)


On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Robin Rosenberg wrote:
>
> This is the "We've always used COBOL^H^H^H^H" argument.

In fact, in Linux we did try C++ once already, back in 1992.

It sucks. Trust me - writing kernel code in C++ is a BLOODY STUPID IDEA.

The fact is, C++ compilers are not trustworthy. They were even worse in
1992, but some fundamental facts haven't changed:

 - the whole C++ exception handling thing is fundamentally broken. It's
   _especially_ broken for kernels.
 - any compiler or language that likes to hide things like memory
   allocations behind your back just isn't a good choice for a kernel.
 - you can write object-oriented code (useful for filesystems etc) in C,
   _without_ the crap that is C++.

In general, I'd say that anybody who designs his kernel modules for C++ is
either
 (a) looking for problems
 (b) a C++ bigot that can't see what he is writing is really just C anyway
 (c) was given an assignment in CS class to do so.

Feel free to make up (d).

		Linus
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