Hacker Poll: Is C++ the Language of the Future?

Big C++ fan here. I came to C++ after learning Python. I simply love it and the Boost libraries only make it better.

If I could only have one programming language, it would definitely be C++. I can do anything with it on any operating system. No vendor or IDE or build environment lock in. It's a solid ISO standard with multiple compiler support.

I still use bash, Python and Ruby for quick test scripts and prototyping and I like them as well.

C++ is as complicated as you make it. Start with the basics and add on whatever works for you.

I think most people complain that C++ is overly complex because they try to learn it at the same time they try to learn a complex (typically GUI ex. MFC) framework. If you're learning C++ start with backends. Strip it down so that there aren't so many things to learn initially.

The same thing could be said for any language worth a darn. It stands out more for C++ because it's typically only used in heavy lifting situations. It's almost impossible to learn and produce something coherent in this case. Again though that would be true for any language suitable for such situations.

Have you ever debugged a class that used free instead of delete?

I can't help but think that people that suggest this stuff simply look at lists of features and see "lambda" and think C++ has somehow been modernized. Still fundamentally, it's producing machine code and fundamentally it has a fairly limited runtime and compared to what a LISP coder thinks of when he thinks of closures you might not want to call what C++ has 'closures.' Maybe the fact that the article referenced "lambdas and closures" is what throws me off... that's two features, right? haha The posts that mention C++'s cross platform nature also kind of make me laugh, it's sort of true, it's also remarkably easy to make it not true, just using "int" somewhere will break it some cases and if one of your platforms in Visual C++, then you'll probably have 2 code bases #ifdefed in to one, you can make it work but you have to do some work.

C++ probably won't die, not exactly that languages just die. Microsoft is all in with it, and many other organizations use it. It seems like we are in an era where there is more freedom to match the tool to the job than ever before and I can't imagine starting a medium or large scale project in C++ when Java and .NET are both still very viable. I can't imagine any serious C++ web app development, I can easily see some Ruby, Python or something other calling a chunk of C++ code, but I just can't see it rendering javascript and html in any serious way, it makes very little sense. Now VMs, runtimes, browsers, they'll likely continue to have some C++ in them for some time. It's a fine tool for some jobs. I also find is puzzling, the OpenJDK is GPL, simply Oracle's ownership somehow suggests Java is ending? If that's really what matters, then pretty clearly Go and Objective-C are what the future is, just looking at corporate ownership and momentum.

From a feature matrix? Sure C++ is the next big thing. From reality? I think and hope that it's future use shrinks and becomes more specialized.

My bet is on Go. Once the gates are open, the flood will bring em to the top. Go on the browser, server, mobile, desktop, os, everywhere. By Google.

The comments on this page are just like C++ itself - all over the place, some of everything. I heard the same comments in the early 90's, when I was doing exclusively C++.

That's why it will still be around 5, 10 and 20 years from now - as long as there's something for everyone to dislike it will also make enough people happy enough to continue using it.