B# language for embedded development.

[Sean Kelly]

James Dunne wrote:
> Sean Kelly wrote:
>> Bee Sharp wrote:
>>
>>> Excelent article about a new language targeted to embedded development.
>>>
>>> http://www.embedded.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183700818
>>>
>>> "The B# language includes efficient boxing/ unboxing conversions, field
>>> properties, device addressing registers, interrupt handlers, 
>>> deterministic
>>> memory defragmenter, and multi-threading capabilities."
>>
>>
>> Why not just call it C-flat?
> 
> Well, B# is technically equivalent to the C note...
> 
> C-flat would therefore just be B.

Ah well, I tried :-p

In all seriousness, the language seems decent but I didn't see any 
features it offered over D.  It mostly seems like a very stipped down 
version of C#, and while it may or may not be ideal for embedded 
programming, I can't think of a reason I'd like to use it outside that 
arena.  I did also thing it was weird that they placed so much 
importance on boxing and unboxing that they maintain runtime type flags 
for *all* variables simply to make the process more efficient.  For a 
system that's short on memory, is such a per-variable overhead actually 
desirable?  And how does it affect struct layout?  Classes are nice, but 
B#, while lean on features, seems like it could be a bit bloated and 
slow on low-end embedded machines.


Sean