91–100 of 310 posts
Like every programming language out there, C++ is a tool. And like every tool out there it has its uses. There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. However, there's one thing you can do in C++ and not in Python or JavaScript or PHP: fully control the memory layout of your data. While you don't need it in most of the cases, it becomes a ki…
Like every programming language out there, C++ is a tool. And like every tool out there it has its uses. There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. However, there's one thing you can do in C++ and not in Python or JavaScript or PHP: fully control the memory layout of your data. While you don't need it in most of the cases, it becomes a ki…
And like every tool some tools are crap and other tools are good. Not saying C++ is crap but I'm definitely saying that it is unwise to use this analogy to believe that there are no crap tools out there.
There's this thing that happens among programming languages where everyone likes to think all programming languages are just apples and oranges and everything is equal.
The truth about the world is equality is rare... some things are good and others pure liquid shit. Programming languages are not immune from this property of the universe.
Now about C++... What you say about it is true. I completely agree. However, much of the good of C++ comes with a pile of crap that you have to deal with that's often not worth it for the majority of projects. In my opinion C++ is only good because there's no alternative unless you count Rust or D.
Like every programming language out there, C++ is a tool. And like every tool out there it has its uses. There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. However, there's one thing you can do in C++ and not in Python or JavaScript or PHP: fully control the memory layout of your data. While you don't need it in most of the cases, it becomes a ki…
> There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. However, there's one thing you can do in C++ and not in Python or JavaScript or PHP: fully control the memory layout of your data. Any books or resources for digging deeper in these kinds of topics? I’m a Python developer and would like to learn C++ but the just the reasons you mentioned make i…
Let me warn you right now. It's not worth it. At all. Don't go down this path. Memory management is easy, but that's not the only crap you have to deal with.
Templating and the whole C++ ecosystem with Cmake compiling to make is a giant headache. It takes about a week to integrate a new C++ library in source code and people are worried about installing or "trying" out new libraries because of memory leaks.... while in python I'll install an entire library in seconds just to try out a function.
I would say if you made an app in python and the same exact app in C++, the C++ app would perform waay better. No question. But the developer experience and effort required to make that same app is much much more painful.
As someone who writes <5 commits of C++ per year, it is very frustrating. I can’t get through a code review without reviewers referencing at least 2 blog posts about proper style for modern C++. I’m sure if I were an expert who used it every day I could remember all the gotchas and best practices, but it sure is tedious to deal with occasionally. Too many foot guns and conventions, not enough constraints in the langu…
I'm sorry but why would you expect anything different from a language you rarely use? I've picked up Python the past few years and have come to love it, but I'm sure any seasoned vet would eviscerate me in a code review.
Like every programming language out there, C++ is a tool. And like every tool out there it has its uses. There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. However, there's one thing you can do in C++ and not in Python or JavaScript or PHP: fully control the memory layout of your data. While you don't need it in most of the cases, it becomes a ki…
> There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. People using c++ usually care about programs finishing before the heat death of the universe. I had a few Python scripts that spend several seconds parsing larger files, after a rewrite to c++ that changed to almost instant.
It depends on the task. If the parsing is done once a day then several seconds is nothing, so there is no point in using C++.
If the parser is running very frequently then of course one uses a faster implementation.
Like every programming language out there, C++ is a tool. And like every tool out there it has its uses. There isn't any point of using C++ to count words in a text file. Any high-level language like Python will beat you to it. However, there's one thing you can do in C++ and not in Python or JavaScript or PHP: fully control the memory layout of your data. While you don't need it in most of the cases, it becomes a ki…
Wouldn't C be a better fit for these tasks?
> This code compiles, runs and works [1] on all major platforms using only the default toolchain provided by the OS vendor without any external dependencies or downloads. This is something that no other programming language can provide as of date. Isn't that provided by at least Golang and Zig currently?
Any software where you will need to develop serious things for will suck. Almost nobody feels miserable in languages like python because they rarely have to deal with the ugly stuff or having people depending their lives on it. Thats the 50% of the fun writing in it, because you will deal mostly with the cool things, and who would not like the language that gives you that kind of pleasure? And the languages that are…
I do believe (not as a religion, but based on the progress made with languages like Rust, Idris, Haskell, Typescript etc) that the trend towards provable/robust safeness will continue in the coming 10 years. Progress is slow, but it is there and the libraries + proof assistants (possibly AI assisted) will improve. Somehow that will find it's way in one or more of the languages we are using now (because shiny new things).
Anyway; I don't have that feeling, at all, about languages and codebases I have been using for 1 or more decades; c, c#, php, java, pascal, perl (only exception is JS; it was awful 10+ years ago and I do like to complain about that but I maintain only 1 significant codebase in 'older' js (about 8 years ago?); it is a (callback hell) nightmare, currently being rewritten in c#); I work on significant sized codebases in all of these and they work fine (no money lost, no people died (no avionics either though, but still enough opportunities where people could've died because of something I wrote or was lead on)).
> Its psychology. We need the shiny new thing to give more meaning to our lives.
'We need' => maybe most people do, I don't. I actually never really liked new things. I want stability as my work demands and has demanded that for decades and it creeped into my non-work life. I want things to be reliable and robust 'forever', not new things that I don't know of how good or solid they are (spoiler; they are usually not, in code nor meatspace). I like to pay people, keep my company healthy and sleep at night; shiny new things do the opposite in most cases.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
By using libcurl. I run a distributed c++ database and it's one of the most stable components of our stack. Java and Ruby tend to break much more often. Also, you wouldn't want to use Python without any packages, so why insist on the same with c++?
Is there some sort of standard / commonly accepted way to manage packages for c++? In python its as simple as pip install + import, and the community is generally in agreement with the best library to use with good documentation. Is there some sort of similar tools I can use for c++?