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submitted 2 weeks ago by bestelbus22@lemmy.world to c/programmerhumor@lemmy.ml

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[-] xiii@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I was working on a C code base with classes, inheritance, and polymorphism, all done by hands and macros.

Something like

typedef struct s_some_class {
    void (*method)(this *s_some_class);
} t_some_class;

Overall, learning C was the best enabler in my whole career. For instance I was learning Python by tinkering with CPython VM, so when I see these ‘WAT’ quircks I know exactly what’s up.

[-] bestelbus22@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Interesting, how did they do inheritance? Something like void *super? Also why not switch to CPP if you wanna do OOP?

[-] xiii@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

In general, 'classes' declarations were done with macro. I don't remember the exact code — something akin to

BEGIN_CLASS(A, Parent);
CLASS_MEMBER(a...)
END_CLASS();

The project had started before C++ existed, and the switch would be too costly. It's not just OOP part, also reflection mechanism with bindings to the homemade scripting language, and multi-platform UI library. It was a gem of its time.

[-] bestelbus22@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

That sounds like quite a challenge to maintain, to speak in euphemisms ;)

[-] xiii@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Revolutionary technologies of the '80 make me appreciate modern programming languages and especially tooling much more.

this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025

524 points (97.5% liked)

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