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> One of the reasons CUDA beat OpenCL was that enough people preferred C++ or Fortran to C and CUDA was happy to accommodate them while OpenCL wasn't.

Nonsense. We're talking about an API. C provides a bare-bones interface that doesn't impose any performance penalty, but just because the API is C nothing forces anyone to implement core functionality in the best tool they can find.

That's like complaining that an air conditioner doesn't cool the room as well as others just because it uses a type F electrical socket instead of a type C plug.




> We're talking about an API

I don't think we are. We are talking about languages.

In CUDA, compute kernels are written in a language called "CUDA C++." In OpenCL 1.2, compute kernels are written in a language called "OpenCL C." Somebody else probably could have (likely did) implement a compiler for their own version of C++ for OpenCL kernels, but the point 'pjmlp was making is that the standard platform did not enable C++ to be used for kernels until long after it was available in CUDA.


Proper APIs can be defined via IDLs, C is not needed at all.




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