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I agree. C++ is a poorly designed language with a lot of "bugs" in it. Languages do not pass the usual development cycle that includes collection of requiremen

by dakimov 14y ago

I agree. C++ is a poorly designed language with a lot of "bugs" in it. Languages do not pass the usual development cycle that includes collection of requirements, beta-testing and bug fixing. C++ have some obviously stupid design decisions that apparently will never be fixed. Strangely or not, people tend to approach languages religiously rather than rationally. Languages are like holy scripts that are written by one or a few people that are perceived like gods, and there is no proper critism or improvement following the development of a language. Hence what we have today. One of the most popular languages is full of stupid design mistakes that will never be fixed, they rather die with the language. Actually, an example of a language that fixes many of the C++ problems is C#. But it inherently cannot be a replacement of C++. Again, people are not rationally thinking creatures. And to all who are not rationally thinking, I just say: fuck you.

mrich 14y ago
You cannot determine the "best language" (for a given project) from a computer science aspect only. In the real world things like availability of programmers, existing code/interfacing with libraries, support of different platforms etc. play a much larger role. D may be superior to C++, but if you have to build a firmware in one year and you will need 20 developers you cannot use this language since you cannot hire that many experienced developers and the D compiler may not even target your platform. Even luck and being in the right spot at the right time by coincidence play a large part. Consider Javascript, which was never designed to do all the stuff people use it for nowadays. But for all its flaws it solved people's problems at the right time and therefore got popular. It was the same with C and C++.
zxcdw 14y ago
You call out for rationality and claim that C# fixes C++'s problems? A language which requires a heavy runtime, really?
tragomaskhalos 14y ago
C++ is not a "poorly designed language", it is a language with a number of difficult corners imposed by legacy compatibility with (originally) C, and later with its own multiple decades of use. Features that have serendipitously been free of such constraints are generally extremely well designed. It is of course possible, easy even, to design a language ex novo that has no such legacy baggage, yet none is remotely as compelling as C++ for a wide swathe of tasks, more eloquent testimony to the quality of C++ than any amount of Internet squabbling.

by dakimov 14y ago

mrich 14y ago

You cannot determine the "best language" (for a given project) from a computer science aspect only. In the real world things like availability of programmers, existing code/interfacing with libraries, support of different platforms etc. play a much larger role. D may be superior to C++, but if you have to build a firmware in one year and you will need 20 developers you cannot use this language since you cannot hire that many experienced developers and the D compiler may not even target your platform. Even luck and being in the right spot at the right time by coincidence play a large part. Consider Javascript, which was never designed to do all the stuff people use it for nowadays. But for all its flaws it solved people's problems at the right time and therefore got popular. It was the same with C and C++.

zxcdw 14y ago

You call out for rationality and claim that C# fixes C++'s problems? A language which requires a heavy runtime, really?

tragomaskhalos 14y ago

C++ is not a "poorly designed language", it is a language with a number of difficult corners imposed by legacy compatibility with (originally) C, and later with its own multiple decades of use. Features that have serendipitously been free of such constraints are generally extremely well designed. It is of course possible, easy even, to design a language ex novo that has no such legacy baggage, yet none is remotely as compelling as C++ for a wide swathe of tasks, more eloquent testimony to the quality of C++ than any amount of Internet squabbling.