NewsJan Kahmen5 min read

Google Carbon as C++ Successor?

The Google programming language Carbon belongs to the newer languages. These take into account and even promote the modern development approach.

google-carbon.png

Table of Content

How much time programming takes depends on various factors: among others, the programming language. Since C++ runs significantly slower as such, Google engineers decided to develop a new programming language. It is called Carbon and is considered a possible successor to the outdated programming language C++. What makes it special is that it is an experimental open-source programming language. This approach has met with great approval so far.

Why is Google Experimenting with Carbon as a New Programming Language?

The Google programming language Carbon is one of the newer languages. These take into account and even promote the modern development approach. It follows concepts such as generics and memory safety, which makes it interesting for many new developments. For this reason it was already presented at the C++ conference in Toronto.
The goal of this new development is to improve the language design and the ecosystem of the language. This should make the Google programming language much easier to use and offer maximum performance. In addition, it should strengthen devops security while extending and improving generic programming. Also of interest is that with Carbon, you significantly reduce complexity in development projects.
Google is no newcomer when it comes to programming languages
Google Carbon is currently considered an experimental successor to the C++ programming language. However, it is not the first language that Google engineers developed as part of Google Programming.

  • In 2009, the company pursued the goal of simplifying system programming with Go.
  • In 2011, the Javascript alternative followed in the form of Dart.
  • The Kotlin language is already used by Google as standard for its Java-based Android system.

What are the Advantages of Google Carbon?

The use of Carbon promises many advantages. These go far beyond migration from and interoperability with existing C++ code. For example, replacing the C++ programming language is designed to strengthen the long-term security of your IT infrastructure. Conceivably, for example, you can more easily customize AI in Cyber Security. And regular pentesting could also be made easier.
The Google programming language also offers you the following benefits:

  • Google Carbon is based on modern programming principles, which gives you numerous advantages in practice.
  • At the same time, it includes a generic system, which eliminates the need to check the code each time it is instantiated.
  • Unlike the C++ programming language, Carbon provides much-needed memory safety. This allows you to close memory access errors that are otherwise an immense security hole.
  • Also thoughtfully, you can better track uninitialized state, making static code analysis easier.
  • Additionally, you can perform dynamic boundary checks and design APIs and idioms.
  • The language supports performance-critical software and is suitable for software and language development.
  • The code is easier to read, making it more understandable. This fact simultaneously shortens the development time and makes it fast and more scalable.
  • The Google programming language supports security and testing mechanisms, as well as modern operating system platforms and hardware architectures.

Google Carbon: Why not Rust as an Alternative to C++?

The Rust programming language is designed to meet the requirements of memory-safe performance applications. In principle, this makes the language an excellent alternative. However, the migration of existing C++ databases to this programming language is extremely difficult.
Rust is rather a successor language that builds on the C++ ecosystem. In contrast, Google Carbon offers its own ecosystem. This provides the necessary interoperability with C++, allowing existing codebases to be adopted and made more powerful.

Google Carbon Involves the Community

A key advantage of Google Carbon is: it is not a closed project. You can find the code base on GitHub and access it at any time. Although it originates from Google, it is driven by the community, in line with the open source idea.
This means: You can participate in the refinement yourself as a contributor. For example, by contributing valuable content to discussions about the improvement. This form of further development can be advanced particularly quickly through the knowledge of the crowd. Likewise through additional measures such as bug bounty programs. Therefore, you can expect version 0.1 as early as 2022. As early as 2024 or 2025, a version that is no longer experimental should then be available.

Curious? Convinced? Interested?

Arrange a no-obligation consultation with one of our product experts today.