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A lot of people who have written and maintain large C++ code bases will tell you straight up that they prefer C to C++. Perhaps that's the problem right there.

by copper 16y ago

A lot of people who have written and maintain large C++ code bases will tell you straight up that they prefer C to C++. Perhaps that's the problem right there. As someone who has written a lot of C++ for quite some time, the most nightmarish aspect tends to be working with antique codebases. The way people program in it has changed drastically over the last ten or so years. It's possible to have a reasonably painless experience with modern C++ that is pretty much impossible with codebases with significant history. A lot of that is because the compiler support simply wasn't mature enough, so people did what they had to do to ship. If all you're dealing with is old C++ code, it's extremely easy to find that you prefer coding in C rather than C++ (which is almost what that old code really is).

agentultra 16y ago
The true test of a language, IMO, is how it will rot over a decade or so. I'm maintaining a C++ web application written 12 years ago. It's not pretty. I cannot describe the difficulties even an experience C++ developer would have in trying to understand and maintain it. Fortunately modern C++ is pretty good. We've managed to tack on a legacy compatibility layer via the Boost libs to give us a Python wrapper. It's still running in production and is still pretty useable. However, C/C++ still requires a fairly high cognitive load for a diminishing return, IMO. There are other languages that are easier to understand and maintain whose implementations are getting increasingly better at competing in areas where C/C++ used to be the go-to choice. There are simply fewer cases where I will reach for C++ these days where it used to be the only choice.
- copper 16y ago
  You're absolutely right, of course - a webapp in C++ is not something that I'd want to even volunteer to help maintain. I'd just say that it's not the language that rots, but the libraries, and preexisting code. There are still some areas where C++ is a good choice, but for things like a webapp, there would have to be a really compelling reason to choose it.

by copper 16y ago

agentultra 16y ago

The true test of a language, IMO, is how it will rot over a decade or so. I'm maintaining a C++ web application written 12 years ago. It's not pretty. I cannot describe the difficulties even an experience C++ developer would have in trying to understand and maintain it. Fortunately modern C++ is pretty good. We've managed to tack on a legacy compatibility layer via the Boost libs to give us a Python wrapper. It's still running in production and is still pretty useable. However, C/C++ still requires a fairly high cognitive load for a diminishing return, IMO. There are other languages that are easier to understand and maintain whose implementations are getting increasingly better at competing in areas where C/C++ used to be the go-to choice. There are simply fewer cases where I will reach for C++ these days where it used to be the only choice.

copper 16y ago
You're absolutely right, of course - a webapp in C++ is not something that I'd want to even volunteer to help maintain. I'd just say that it's not the language that rots, but the libraries, and preexisting code. There are still some areas where C++ is a good choice, but for things like a webapp, there would have to be a really compelling reason to choose it.