>i think you misunderstand.
>clearly, it is C++, not C.
I got that, what I said is that you wouldn't have that problem in C because it arises when you are doing OOP, and most C devs would not use OOP. Also, keep in mind that it is perfectly fine not using OOP in C++.
> instead of a simple malloc and free, you will invariably end down the rabbit hole learning about rvalues
That's not true. Actually you can be a very decent C++ developer without knowing the notion of what an rvalue is. Move semantics is just an optimization to avoid extra copy of objects, so it is completely optional.
At the moment of writting this, there is an entry on the front page with an example of a modern C++ piece of code. You would notice that there is not a single explicit heap allocation nor any other crazy stuff.
i think moving data around in memory is not an exclusive feature of OOP and i hesitate to guess why you think that operations similar to those exposed by the 'move semantics' are not something undertaken (regularly!) by c developers using malloc and free.
> instead of a simple malloc and free, you will invariably end down the rabbit hole learning about rvalues
truth is subjective to me, in my experience, when you program C++ you will end up exploring a myriad of vast expanses of language features. you may feel that someone can be a very decent C++ developer without knowing that, plenty others would be aghast that someone ignorant of rvalues would describe themselves as 'very decent'.
remember the ostensible creator of the language rates himself at 8/10.
i think that front page example is rather interesting, given the number of #using directives - it gives an indication of the time that developer has spent learning the language. most of them are not trivial to understand to the degree that this guy has. also reading his background, i'm quite sure he knows what an rvalue is.
as you can imagine, i don't really mind explicit allocations - as an awful lot of knowledge is required in C++ to deal with implicit allocations.
in my opinion, there's a lot of 'crazy' stuff there, the short linecount is a product of the author having done his homework.
i get the impression that you and i would use very different subsets of C++. mine would be far smaller! i usually confine myself to whatever idoms the libraries i pull in use and go no futher.
I got that, what I said is that you wouldn't have that problem in C because it arises when you are doing OOP, and most C devs would not use OOP. Also, keep in mind that it is perfectly fine not using OOP in C++.
> instead of a simple malloc and free, you will invariably end down the rabbit hole learning about rvalues
That's not true. Actually you can be a very decent C++ developer without knowing the notion of what an rvalue is. Move semantics is just an optimization to avoid extra copy of objects, so it is completely optional.
At the moment of writting this, there is an entry on the front page with an example of a modern C++ piece of code. You would notice that there is not a single explicit heap allocation nor any other crazy stuff.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9560667