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Without any data to back this up, my guess is that there is no good reason to pick C++ for a new project except when the developer is already fluent in C++. As

Without any data to back this up, my guess is that there is no good reason to pick C++ for a new project except when the developer is already fluent in C++. Assume we have this abstract developer that has a good knowledge in programming theory but has no experience in programming languages. The developer starts a new project, but in what language? web: Don't see any reason for this. Exist lots of great alternatives. This is not really one of C++ strengths so is not that strange. desktop-GUI: Probably one of the biggest strengths of C++ is the Qt framework, it is solid choice. I can see this a possible choice. However with electron dominating & PWA:s becoming a more viable option it is probably much higher chance that a HTML/JS environment is picked instead, especially how it already dominates the web. And by using TypeScript you can do it an solid language. mobile apps: Most apps are written in some web technology or directly with Swift or Java. Qt has some support for this, but not sure how widely used. My experience with NDK was not pleasant. I can't really see this as a viable option. embedded: I don't do embedded, but my understanding is that plain C is much more common here & if faster development is needed you integrate something like Lua. Maybe? memory safe: use rust I guess. compiled binary: Use golang, no complicated buildstep. Parallellism: Better to use a language designed for this like erlang. Game development: For the majority of games today a scripting language like JavaScript or Lua is good enough. HTML/JS has some really good frameworks for game development today. 3D game development: Probably a good fit to use C++, but I think that C# with Unity is a much better choice. Great framework, good community, however C++ is not bad choice for this. Possible. Commandline tool: If the developer is building the next grep, C++ could fit that, but most commandline tools does not have that performance requirement, Probably do some HTTP, JSON decoding, DB access. Bash is good enough or any other dynamic language. Scientific: my understanding is that today this is mostly python or matlab. Maybe? System development (drivers etc): I know too little about this to make a good assessment, to be fair I put this as a possible choice. And if the developer do decides to use C++ for a new project, the initial cost is quite high to just understand the basics, even if he/she uses the latest C++ version. Copy constructors, lvalue & rvalue (xvalue, glvalue, prvalue...), move semantics, const refs, rvo, smart pointers, auto etc Any good arguments to pick C++ for a new project?

pjmlp 7y ago
NVidia is designing their GPUs with C++ in mind as source language. desktop-GUI: I guess you might be joking here with Electron, I rather use my GPU for something else other than blinking cursors. Even with Cocoa, UWP and WPF, the underlying UI shaders are written in C++. Embedded: Yes, C does rule over C++, which is a reason why embedded is so open to security exploits due to wrong manipulation of string and arrays. Parallellism: HPC, FinTech, GPGPU all domains where C++ rules for the time being. 3D game development: C++ is king here, even with Unity the core engine is written in C++. Yes many of us hope to see the day when Unity is 100% written in a mix of C# and HPC#, but even then, LLVM will be part of the stack. Scientific: Someone needs to write those Fortran and C++ libs called by Python and Matlab. System development: Google, Apple and Microsoft use C++ on their driver layers for their respective OSes. IDE tooling: C++ is known for not having IDEs that match what Java/.NET are capable of. Languages that want to take C++'s place, are even worse than C++ in IDE tooling.
- fetbaffe 7y ago
  desktop-GUI: I'm not a fan of Electron either, however the community seems not to be joking about picking it. It seems like most projects are going that direction. None of your arguments here are about a new projects, just about existing technologies. Embedded: But how is that an argument for C++? I can do safe stuff in Lua without the hassle of C++ & then use C when needed. Parallellism: Agree. Here we have a case. Scientific: Yes, someone needs to write the underlying libraries for Python & Matlab, but if you are starting a new project, do you actually start writing a library first or do you use an existing one? IDE tooling: Yes, good tooling can be a good argument in itself to pick a technology. With C++ maturity is as a clear advantage, however some of the languages that i listed do have quite nice tooling today, e.g. C# & TypeScript.
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    desktop-GUI: What community? Web devs trying to write desktop apps? Embedded: Try to write a safe string and vector with bounds checking, or IO port access in C like in C++ type system allows for. Lua is nice for hobby, not production class hardware deployments. Scientific: Depends, many libraries are yet to be written. IDE tooling: Typescript and C# audience isn't the same as those using raw C++.

pjmlp 7y ago

NVidia is designing their GPUs with C++ in mind as source language. desktop-GUI: I guess you might be joking here with Electron, I rather use my GPU for something else other than blinking cursors. Even with Cocoa, UWP and WPF, the underlying UI shaders are written in C++. Embedded: Yes, C does rule over C++, which is a reason why embedded is so open to security exploits due to wrong manipulation of string and arrays. Parallellism: HPC, FinTech, GPGPU all domains where C++ rules for the time being. 3D game development: C++ is king here, even with Unity the core engine is written in C++. Yes many of us hope to see the day when Unity is 100% written in a mix of C# and HPC#, but even then, LLVM will be part of the stack. Scientific: Someone needs to write those Fortran and C++ libs called by Python and Matlab. System development: Google, Apple and Microsoft use C++ on their driver layers for their respective OSes. IDE tooling: C++ is known for not having IDEs that match what Java/.NET are capable of. Languages that want to take C++'s place, are even worse than C++ in IDE tooling.

fetbaffe 7y ago
desktop-GUI: I'm not a fan of Electron either, however the community seems not to be joking about picking it. It seems like most projects are going that direction. None of your arguments here are about a new projects, just about existing technologies. Embedded: But how is that an argument for C++? I can do safe stuff in Lua without the hassle of C++ & then use C when needed. Parallellism: Agree. Here we have a case. Scientific: Yes, someone needs to write the underlying libraries for Python & Matlab, but if you are starting a new project, do you actually start writing a library first or do you use an existing one? IDE tooling: Yes, good tooling can be a good argument in itself to pick a technology. With C++ maturity is as a clear advantage, however some of the languages that i listed do have quite nice tooling today, e.g. C# & TypeScript.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  desktop-GUI: What community? Web devs trying to write desktop apps? Embedded: Try to write a safe string and vector with bounds checking, or IO port access in C like in C++ type system allows for. Lua is nice for hobby, not production class hardware deployments. Scientific: Depends, many libraries are yet to be written. IDE tooling: Typescript and C# audience isn't the same as those using raw C++.