C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
webhome.phy.duke.edu
C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
1–10 of 155 posts
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#2I feel compelled to note that this page is from 2003-05-13, so I have no clue how much of its gripes are still valid in 'modern' C++ :)
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#3The only joke here is somehow this author thinks the success of your project is dependent on the language you pick
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#4That (fake) interview at the end is hilarious.
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#5I feel compelled to note that this page is from 2003-05-13, so I have no clue how much of its gripes are still valid in 'modern' C++ :)
And smart pointers had been a thing for a while at that point (though not part of the library)
https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_61_0/libs/smart_ptr/smart_p...
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#6> There was this Oregon company - Mentor Graphics, I think they were called - really caught a cold trying to rewrite everything in C++ in about '90 or '91. I felt sorry for them really, but I thought people would learn from their mistakes.
I've talked to some of the people at Mentor Graphics who were there during that period. The company basically went from #1 in the industry to #3 or so during the course of the C++ refactor (and the EDA industry isn't exactly big). Bjarne Stroustrup showed up at the company now and then because the company was such a major early adopter. Inheritance chains were 5 or 10 classes deep. A full build took a week. The company hosted barbecues on weekends and invited the employees' families so they could see each other.
I only worked there somewhat later, so I just heard the stories from people who were there at the time, and only after I had been there a while. Take some old-timers out to lunch now and then, you'll learn a lot. I ended up leaving, I was more than a bit frustrated by the organizational culture and the build system my team used was by far the worst I have ever seen in my entire life.
But Oregon is an awesome place to live, the salary was good, and the hours were normal.
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#7Dr. Stroustrup took a lot of pain to ensure the language was useful and did not break backward compatibility. He also always maintained that if you don't use a feature you shouldn't pay for it (in terms of performance). Eventually, it became even more popular and there is now a whole organisation behind the international standards for the language. The book "The Design and Evolution of C++" helps one understand why some things are the way they are and sometimes it helps understand why some things exist in the language in the first place.
The language takes a lot of flak but I think it is quite good given the constraints it has and the modern version is an amazing leap forward in ease of use as well.
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#8The only joke here is somehow this author thinks the success of your project is dependent on the language you pick
Funny how many people believe that language choice influences success. I guess they're all wrong?
Sure, there are an uncountable number of other factors, but picking the wrong platform/language can be fatal.
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#9Modern C++ is WAY better than C, IMO. I can never go back to C, having tasted C++14, and I work on embedded systems.
Re: C++: Is It Really a Cruel Joke? (2003)
#10The only joke here is somehow this author thinks the success of your project is dependent on the language you pick
Exactly! If I want to write my AAA game engine in JavaScript and Haskell it still has the same chance of success as an engine in C++