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Re (5), I rather feel that the quality of the documentation and communication around modern C++ puts everything else to shame. If you knew java or python in 200

by htns 7y ago

Re (5), I rather feel that the quality of the documentation and communication around modern C++ puts everything else to shame. If you knew java or python in 2009, how are you supposed to quickly catch up with 2019? (Rust also seems to have piled on a lot of additions since 1.0, but I don't use it so I shouldn't speak.) There are books and blogs for everything popular, but it's really a little shocking to me that no other big language has anything that can compare to cppreference.com. This doesn't change what people other than me might be thinking, of course.

dgellow 7y ago
I guess it's a question of habit. I'm learning C++ during my free time since a few months. I find cppreference.com really difficult to parse. I understand way more of the documentation now than when I started because of the bit of experience I gained, but it is written in a way that makes everything sounds really over-complicated. I remember when I googled for something and arrived at the page about "Value category": https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/value_category https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/value_category. If you're not already well familiar with the language, this page is really hard to understand IMHO. I found it way easier to deal with Go, C#, and Ruby documentation for example.
- gpderetta 7y ago
  Cppreference is great, but it is not the best place to learn the language.
- east2west 7y ago
  I don't recommend cppreference for novices. It is by no means an easy read. It is a reference, first of all. It enumerates all possible minutiae exhaustively. Unless you are already familiar, to a degree, with most of the topics, reading it is going to be frustrating. The second obstacle is the terminology. C++ defines a lot of terms that are not in common use in other languages. It takes time to be acclimated. The reason that it is popular in the C++ community is that it cuts down legalese a lot when compared to the language standard. Try books first. Meyers and Josuttis write excellent books. The template guide by Vandevoorde and Josuttis is my gateway drug to becoming a language lawyer. It is still hard, but at least manageable.
- jolmg 7y ago
  > The following expressions are lvalue expressions: [...] a string literal, such as "Hello, world!" That's pretty interesting. I'm not even sure how to test the effect of "Hello, world!" = <something> I imagine the reason this is allowed has something to do with how strings decay into pointers. > I found it way easier to deal with ... Ruby documentation for example. Maybe in documentation detailing the methods available, but as far as I know, there's no official spec for the syntax nor the details of the semantics of the language.
gumby 7y ago
I agree that cppreference is amazing and is my only c++ link in my browser favourites. Documentation is typically clear and succinct. And its a wiki! Not a fan of the spongers that scrape it though.

by htns 7y ago

dgellow 7y ago

I guess it's a question of habit. I'm learning C++ during my free time since a few months. I find cppreference.com really difficult to parse. I understand way more of the documentation now than when I started because of the bit of experience I gained, but it is written in a way that makes everything sounds really over-complicated. I remember when I googled for something and arrived at the page about "Value category": https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/value_category https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/value_category. If you're not already well familiar with the language, this page is really hard to understand IMHO. I found it way easier to deal with Go, C#, and Ruby documentation for example.

gpderetta 7y ago
Cppreference is great, but it is not the best place to learn the language.
east2west 7y ago
I don't recommend cppreference for novices. It is by no means an easy read. It is a reference, first of all. It enumerates all possible minutiae exhaustively. Unless you are already familiar, to a degree, with most of the topics, reading it is going to be frustrating. The second obstacle is the terminology. C++ defines a lot of terms that are not in common use in other languages. It takes time to be acclimated. The reason that it is popular in the C++ community is that it cuts down legalese a lot when compared to the language standard. Try books first. Meyers and Josuttis write excellent books. The template guide by Vandevoorde and Josuttis is my gateway drug to becoming a language lawyer. It is still hard, but at least manageable.
jolmg 7y ago
> The following expressions are lvalue expressions: [...] a string literal, such as "Hello, world!" That's pretty interesting. I'm not even sure how to test the effect of "Hello, world!" = <something> I imagine the reason this is allowed has something to do with how strings decay into pointers. > I found it way easier to deal with ... Ruby documentation for example. Maybe in documentation detailing the methods available, but as far as I know, there's no official spec for the syntax nor the details of the semantics of the language.

gumby 7y ago

I agree that cppreference is amazing and is my only c++ link in my browser favourites. Documentation is typically clear and succinct. And its a wiki! Not a fan of the spongers that scrape it though.