C++ is a Superset of C ?

Well that is IMHO a misunderstanding. One can make a C or C++ program work that it either can be compiled as C or C++ code but that fails which such simple things as different keywors

int main(void)
    int new = 0;
   return 0;
}

Is quite ok in C but hardly in C++. Unfortunatly the impression is still that C++ is "just" a "better" C (whatever "better" means, but the languages are different.

Regards
Friedrich

fridom,

I agree that programs can be constructed that will compile either in C or C++, but not in the other.

There are several pages on the web that detail differences between the languages...

C for C++ programmers
http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~iancooke/osstuff/ccc.html

Incompatabilities between ISO C and ISO C++
http://david.tribble.com/text/cdiffs.htm

C++ Features Not in C (C-like features, not classes or templates)
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~sugih/pointers/C++NotInC.html

and others.

Were you to ask a similar question, a deep answer would be needed because you already are a master of the language.

I gave a simpler answer to a simpler question.

Best,
Joe

IMO these are two different languages that are strongly interconnected.

For example the current C standard aka C99 includes features that are absent
in the current C++ standard aka C++03. Anyway most C++ compilers, that claim to be standard compatible, are C99 compatilbe too. So depending on the compiler
you could probably use C99 code in your C++ programs althought this is not supported by the C++ standard.

On the other hand some of the changes introduced to C in C99
were inspired by C++

Btw the C++ standard comitee is now working on a new C++ standard
aka C++0x and one of the aims of C++0x is to try to close the gap
between C99 and C++

You seem to forget that C++ was designed starting from C, and tried to keep C as a subset as good as possible (which can't be achieved 100% because keywords need to be added if you want added functionality).

Some quotes from Bjarne Stroustrup's (the creator of C++) book "The C++ programming language" :

        "C++ was designed to have a high degree of compatibility with C"

        "C++ was developed from the C programming language and, with few exceptions, retains C as a subset"

        "C++ can use the same function call and return sequences as C - or more efficient ones"

For most intents and purposes, you can indeed see C++ as a superset of C. It's just for some specific cases, where you need to pay attention to what you do.

That was _very_ well said.

Just a small historical note.

In the early days, when C++ compilers didn't exist, the C++ code was passed through a an interpreter called CFront.  CFront converted C++ to C.  The converted code was then compiled using a C compiler.

The other contender for OO stuff which is of the same vintage as C++ was Objective-C.  It too was similar to C with minor syntax changes.  For some reason or other, Objective-C didn't really take off.