Is there any missing feature of pure C (not C++)?

[Naereen]

Hello there,
First of all, 👏 👏 this project is amazing, I've using it from time to time since a few months, and I really like it!
It can be a great tool for teaching I think! So thanks!

Regarding teaching, I'll have to teach a few introduction courses to C (not C++), and of course I'll start by using a local real compiler for C, but I would like to also have such basic interactive environment.
I know Jupyter also has a C kernel, and this one is the only one I'm aware of... but as it's name says, it's pretty minimal.

I'm not a very strong expert of C and C++, but from what I understood, any valid C99 or C11 program is also valid in C++, with the same semantic, so I can expect xeus-cling to be able to run correctly any (small and simple enough) C program?

My question is in the title: Is there any (known) missing feature of pure C (not C++)?

I wasn't able to find the answer on CLING documentation, so I prefer to ask here.

Thanks!
Regards from France, @Naereen

[Naereen]

I link here a similar question I've opened on JSCPP, a pure javascript interpreter for C++ that I also intend to use for my teaching. felixhao28/JSCPP#146

[JohanMabille]

Hi,

Thanks for the kind words! I've never tried to use pure C with xeus-cling, but xeus-cling relies on cling which in turn relies on clang and llvm. So I guess it should work out of the box, and any missing / non working feature could be reported as a bug.

[Naereen]

Great, thanks for the answer @JohanMabille !

[SylvainCorlay]

Hey @Naereen,

To my knowledge, the C Kernel linked above does not really offer an interpreter for the C Programming language as each cell is a separate C program with its own main function. Xeus-cling on the other hands provides an interpreter experience, where variables defined in a cell can be used in another cell.

Xeus-cling supports C++14 (as well as clang 5), and higher versions of C++ (17, 20) will not be supported until the cling backend moves to a more recent version of llvm and clang.

Closing the issue!

[Naereen]

Hi Sylvain,
Thanks for the answer.
Yes the C kernel is quite limited as it just compiles & runs the code for you, so it can be great to teach about compiling C to native code.

I'll keep learning C and what C features are not supported by Clang (hence by Cling hence by this kernel), but my guess is that I can safely assume any reasonable "L1/L2 Bachelor" programs in C will work perfectly using the C++ kernel. (I'll have to teach that at CPGE level soon!)

Thanks! @Naereen