From 09d5c19296d6a1c7e58f995c5647500720b0a8e2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Melody Horn <melody@boringcactus.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 13:13:14 -0600
Subject: translate C comparison to .rst

---
 vs-c.rst | 81 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 81 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 vs-c.rst

(limited to 'vs-c.rst')

diff --git a/vs-c.rst b/vs-c.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..346f6f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vs-c.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+***************
+Comparison to C
+***************
+
+What differentiates Crowbar from C?
+
+Removals
+========
+
+Some of the footguns and complexity in C come from misfeatures that can simply not be used.
+
+Footguns
+--------
+
+Some constructs in C are almost always the wrong thing.
+
+*   ``goto``
+*   Hexadecimal float literals
+*   Wide characters
+*   Digraphs
+*   Prefix ``++`` and ``--``
+*   Chaining mixed left and right shifts (e.g. ``x << 3 >> 2``)
+*   Chaining relational/equality operators (e.g. ``3 < x == 2``)
+*   Mixed chains of bitwise or logical operators (e.g. ``2 & x && 4 ^ y``)
+*   The comma operator ``,``
+
+Some constructs in C exhibit implicit behavior that should instead be made explicit.
+
+*   ``typedef``
+*   Octal escape sequences
+*   Using an assignment operator (``=``, ``+=``, etc) or (postfix) ``++`` and ``--`` as components in a larger expression
+*   The conditional operator ``?:``
+*   Preprocessor macros (but constants are fine)
+
+Needless Complexity
+-------------------
+
+Some type modifiers in C exist solely for the purpose of enabling optimizations which most compilers can do already.
+
+*   ``inline``
+*   ``register``
+
+Some type modifiers in C only apply in very specific circumstances and so aren't important.
+
+*   ``restrict``
+*   ``volatile``
+*   ``_Imaginary``
+
+Adjustments
+===========
+
+Some C features are footguns by default, so Crowbar ensures that they are only used correctly.
+
+*   Unions are not robust by default.
+    Crowbar only supports unions when they are :doc:`tagged-unions` (or declared and used with the ``fragile`` keyword).
+
+C's syntax isn't perfect, but it's usually pretty good.
+However, sometimes it just sucks, and in those cases Crowbar makes changes.
+
+*   C's variable declaration syntax is far from intuitive in nontrivial cases (function pointers, pointer-to-``const`` vs ``const``-pointer, etc).
+    Crowbar uses :doc:`simplified type syntax <types>` to keep types and variable names distinct.
+*   ``_Bool`` is just ``bool``, ``_Complex`` is just ``complex`` (why drag the preprocessor into it?)
+*   Adding a ``_`` to numeric literals as a separator
+*   All string literals, char literals, etc are UTF-8
+*   Octal literals have a ``0o`` prefix (never ``0O`` because that looks nasty)
+
+Additions
+=========
+
+Anti-Footguns
+-------------
+
+*   C is generous with memory in ways that are unreliable by default. 
+    Crowbar adds :doc:`memory safety conventions <safety>` to make correctness the default behavior.
+*   C's conventions for error handling are unreliable by default.
+    Crowbar adds :doc:`error propagation <errors>` to make correctness the default behavior.
+
+Trivial Room For Improvement
+----------------------------
+
+*   Binary literals, prefixed with ``0b``/``0B``
-- 
cgit v1.2.3