Carbon Lang… The C++ killer? | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Google has announced a new experimental language called Carbon, designed to replace C++, with a focus on performance, memory safety, and interoperability.

Key Insights

• 👨‍💻 Coding languages like JavaScript, Objective-C, and Java are being replaced by TypeScript, Swift, and Kotlin, respectively.
• 🖤 Carbon aims to fill the gap left for a replacement of C++, addressing its technical debt and lack of modern features.
• 😒 The challenge of evolving C++ lies in its widespread use, necessitating a focus on standardization rather than evolving based on modern developer needs.
• 👨‍💻 Carbon stands out with its performance matching C++, support for existing code bases, and improvements in memory safety.
• 🦺 The language supports generics, prioritizes safe memory usage, and allows different modes for balancing safety and performance.
• ❓ Carbon does not rely on mechanisms like borrow checking, reference counting, or garbage collection.
• 😒 Carbon's experimental nature means it will require more time before it is suitable for production use.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: What is Carbon, and how does it compare to C++?

Carbon is an experimental language developed by Google, aiming to replace C++. It matches the performance of C++ while addressing issues like technical debt and lacking modern features. It prioritizes memory safety without compromising performance or interoperability with existing C++ code.

Q: Does Carbon support existing C++ code bases?

Yes, Carbon offers bi-directional interoperability with C++. This means that developers can seamlessly use existing C++ libraries in Carbon or vice versa. Carbon is designed for easy adoption by existing C++ code bases and developers.

Q: How does Carbon improve memory safety?

Carbon introduces a modern generics system, which allows developers to pass types as parameters to classes and functions. It also tackles uninitialized variables, a common source of bugs and security vulnerabilities. Carbon prioritizes memory safety without relying on borrow checking, reference counting, or garbage collection.

Q: When can developers start using Carbon?

Currently, Carbon is an experimental language, and it will likely take multiple years before it is production-ready. Despite this, employers are already looking to hire Carbon developers, although the prerequisite is a minimum of 10 years of Carbon experience.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Microsoft killed JavaScript with TypeScript, Apple killed Objective-C with Swift, and JetBrains killed Java with Kotlin. Now, Google is taking on the challenge of replacing C++ with its new experimental language, Carbon.

• Carbon aims to match the performance of C++ with LLVM and offers interoperability with existing C++ code bases. It addresses the technical debt and difficulty in evolving C++ due to its widespread use in high-performance, low-level systems.

• Carbon supports modern features like generics, improves memory safety, and offers different modes for prioritizing memory safety while maintaining performance.