I am currently in the preparation phase of jumping into free software development. As I said in my previous diary entries, I am focusing on a project that is under active development (clanlib) by other people. I started reading several books (Game Architecture and Design; The C++ Programming Language (Stroustrup); Design Patterns; Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications (Booch) in that order) before settling on the last one, as I believe that will give me the necessary background to (maybe) do what I want to do.

I have been wondering, to what extent, in the free software realm, do people use C++ as opposed to C. How much do they use C++ as more than [just] an improved C, with focus on the object model? (abstraction, encapsulation, modularity, hierarchy, typing, concurrency, and persistence) To what extent do they use a process and/or notation to design/document their software. Any free software projects out there I can look at as a good example? Or have I been reading too many books and need to face the real world? :)

(if someone replies to this directly, could you drop me a note so I don't miss it scrolling off of advogato: drivers AT reflexnet DOT net (two "nets"))