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My humble opinion: Scripting languages like python do have merits. As a 20+ years C++ programmer, I sadly found there seems no scenarios that C++ can play very

My humble opinion: Scripting languages like python do have merits. As a 20+ years C++ programmer, I sadly found there seems no scenarios that C++ can play very well. Compared to C, C++ projects are much harder to maintain. Whenever C++ should be used, C is always a better option.

zmmmmm 14y ago
Well, I think people forget history a bit sometimes. For 20 years or so the most common exploit in any system was a buffer overflow, often in string manipulation. I think we're finally getting past that, but C's lack of abstraction over string pointers was a major, major problem and even today if I was writing a secure system I would choose C++ if only to use the std::string class.
- dakimov 14y ago
  This is not exactly the C language problem, but the design flaw of the C standard library. Also, there are folks out there that still use unprotected buffers in C++ instead of safe types.
dakimov 14y ago
I believe it depends much more on how the code is written, rather than on C vs C++. Believe me, I am able to write as obfuscated and impossible to maintain code in C as in C++ :) (Hopefully) my code in C++ is easy to maintain because of clear concise architecture, simple interfaces, good naming and the use of complicated things such as template metaprogramming only where it is necessary. I would prefer to maintain a C++ codebase written with a concise architecture and the KISS principle in mind than a C codebase written by unqualified programmers without the clear understanding of the task. Also, if you have have 20+ years of experience, then you have started long before C++ became a stable, developed and seasoned tool. I think the finally good enough state of C++ across the platforms was achieved at least in mid 2000s, although it is still in process with the new standard. Early C++ code was a mess (even Boost still contains tons of ugly workarounds for the early compilers).

zmmmmm 14y ago

Well, I think people forget history a bit sometimes. For 20 years or so the most common exploit in any system was a buffer overflow, often in string manipulation. I think we're finally getting past that, but C's lack of abstraction over string pointers was a major, major problem and even today if I was writing a secure system I would choose C++ if only to use the std::string class.

dakimov 14y ago
This is not exactly the C language problem, but the design flaw of the C standard library. Also, there are folks out there that still use unprotected buffers in C++ instead of safe types.

dakimov 14y ago

I believe it depends much more on how the code is written, rather than on C vs C++. Believe me, I am able to write as obfuscated and impossible to maintain code in C as in C++ :) (Hopefully) my code in C++ is easy to maintain because of clear concise architecture, simple interfaces, good naming and the use of complicated things such as template metaprogramming only where it is necessary. I would prefer to maintain a C++ codebase written with a concise architecture and the KISS principle in mind than a C codebase written by unqualified programmers without the clear understanding of the task. Also, if you have have 20+ years of experience, then you have started long before C++ became a stable, developed and seasoned tool. I think the finally good enough state of C++ across the platforms was achieved at least in mid 2000s, although it is still in process with the new standard. Early C++ code was a mess (even Boost still contains tons of ugly workarounds for the early compilers).