alt Hacker NewsI’ve seen this play out a lot. People say they “write games in C” and then quietly rebuild half of C++ anyway with vtables in structs or giant switch statements, just without the compiler helping. That’s fine if it makes you happier, but it’s not obviously simpler or safer. Also, C++ compile times are mostly a self-inflicted wound via templates and metaprogramming, not some inherent tax you pay for having virtual functions.
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This reads like an LLM generated response that simply restates the comment it's replying to
I think it is simpler and "the compiler not helping" == "things are more transparent".
int a = 3;
foo(a);
// What value has a ?
It's important that you do these things yourself before you utilise the compiler to do them for you, so you have real understanding.
> but it’s not obviously simpler or safer
On top of likely having worse performance.
A switch statement is how you do ad-hoc polymorphism in C -- i dont thinks an own against C developers to point that out. If they wanted to adopt the C++ style that immediately requires the entire machinery of OOP, which is an incredibly heavy price to avoid a few switch statements in the tiny number of places ad-hoc poly is actually needed