C vs. C++ vs. ...

C++ as C sucks. C++'s conversion rules work well for C++ code, not for C. C++'s type tagging works for C++, not C.

If you want to code in C, use C. If you want C++, use C++. If you want Lua, use Lua. Although, for my money I'll take C and Lua/Perl/Python, and just skip C++ altogether. For many of the things that C++ does better, other languages do better still. So I don't bother, but that's just me.

However, it's really annoying when people argue that you can use C++ just like C. No, you can't. They're completely different languages. extern "C" does not drop you down into "C" mode.

And I don't care if g++ can produce the same output some of the time for equivalent constructs. I can make GCC produce the same code, once sitting in my chair and once while standing on my head. But why would I do that?