Google has shared details about its new Carbon programming language, which the company believes could be the successor to C++. Over the years, Google has created several programming languages, some of which have become more popular and prominent than others. For example, Golang (or simply Go) was created to improve server and distributed system development and has since become publicly available. Meanwhile, the Dart programming language, originally conceived as something of an alternative to JavaScript, was not widely popular until the release of Flutter.
Programming languages are constantly being improved and developed, and in recent years they have been replaced by models that are even easier to use. Apple’s own Swift language opened up several possibilities for the less experienced developers than, for example, its predecessor Objective-C.
Many are calling Rust the successor to C++, but speaking at a recent event, Google chief software engineer Chandler Carruth explained that this programming language, originally a product of Mozilla, does not have the same “bidirectional interoperability” as other tools, which creates “language barrier” when “translating” between different programming languages.
As such, the recently announced Carbon should be compatible with popular C++ code, but for users who want to make the full switch, the migration should be fairly easy.
For those unsure of the full transition, Carruth elaborated on some of the reasons Carbon should be considered a strong successor to C++, including a simpler grammar and smoother API imports. There are other benefits beyond the Carbon language, including ethical considerations such as the accessibility and inclusiveness of the project culture.
The Carbon family mainly consists of Google employees, but not only them. Drawing on the tech giant’s success, the Carbon team says it needs to be an “independent and public project” to succeed. The Carbon programming language is currently only an experiment. Its source code can be downloaded if you want to try it out, or you can experiment with it in your browser using the Compiler Explorer web application.
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