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From: David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Hex string literals (was Re: C23 thoughts and opinions)
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2024 13:06:14 +0200
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On 21/06/2024 09:13, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:49:24 +0200, David Brown wrote:
> 
>> On 19/06/2024 09:25, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:54:15 +0200, David Brown wrote:
>>>
>>>> ... C++ could not use underscores due to their use in user-defined
>>>> literals, and C followed C++.
>>>
>>> C can still offer the option for them, though.
>>
>> Sometimes it makes sense for C to do the same thing in a different way
>> from C++ - but it is rare, and needs very strong justification.
> 
> The fact that it is something of a de-facto standard among other popular
> languages would count.
> 

The apostrophe was already the standard - not just a "de-facto standard" 
- in the language that is most relevant for cooperation with C.

> Is C doomed to remain forever a strict subset of C++?

C is not a subset of C++.  Their intersection covers most of C, but not 
all of it.

But C and C++ are often used together and compiled together in the same 
binaries.  A large proportion of C and C++ programmers work with both 
languages, while almost none of them have any use for, say, Ada with its 
underscore digit separator.

It makes sense when introducing new features to either language to be 
compatible with the other (if the feature is relevant to both 
languages).  C thus copies from C++, and C++ copies from C.  Sometimes 
there must be differences, but gratuitous differences are bad for 
everyone, even if they might seem a little nicer in one language in 
isolation.