On Thu, Oct 12, 2023 at 10:25:23AM -0700, Per Bothner wrote: > On 10/12/23 02:39, Patrice Dumas wrote: > > There is a translation to C of texi2any code going on, for the future, > > after the next release, mainly for the conversion to HTML in a first step. > > I've always thought that C++ is the obvious implementation language for > texi2any. > The structure of the Perl code is probably a lot easier and cleaner to map > into C++ > (using classes and simple single inheritance) than to plain C. > > C++ has a more extensive and useful standard library than C. > > One data point: Gcc was converted to C++ some years ago. > > Re-writing texi2any in Perl turns out to have been a mistake; switching to C > seems like it would be another mistake. But hey - I'm not the one doing the > work.
Calling it a "mistake" is a very strong statement! Why do you say that? Surely texi2any 7.0.3 (2023) is more functional than makeinfo 4.13 (2008) was. Perl has many flaws as a programming language and in an ideal world it would become "legacy" and fade away, but the following quote applies: "There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses" -- Bjarne Stroustrop (inventor of C++). And despite its quirks, Perl remains a well-documented, well-maintained and reliable piece of software. I'm not much of a fan of C++ tbh. texi2any uses a small amount of Perl class inheritance but not very much.
