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First, I love C/C++, but for web development I have one word why it isn't used: productivity. It would take way to long to accomplish even basic updates and ta

First, I love C/C++, but for web development I have one word why it isn't used: productivity. It would take way to long to accomplish even basic updates and tasks. To me it just makes it the wrong tool for the job, like using a screwdriver to drive a nail into the wall. Just doesn't make sense when better tools exist.

melling 12y ago
Why can't it be productive with a framework? What's missing? Go is used for web development. https://golang.org/doc/articles/wiki/ https://golang.org/doc/articles/wiki/ Go is not too far removed from C.
- davismwfl 12y ago
  I'd agree C could be used with a framework. But it is still not going to be as productive, specifically, think about all the memory management and overall resource management you will need to write code for. Even inside of Go you have a GC to help you as well as a concurrency model that already steers you in the right direction without the need to write a lot of code managing it. Go while sharing a lot of C does a huge amount of lifting and gluing for you that in C you would be writing or managing. Back in that late 90's early 2000's we wrote ISAPI extensions in C/C++ quite often for performance critical problems, e.g. searching etc. IIRC, ebay was also doing that because performance was so critical. But the difference between writing single extensions versus a full website in C is pretty significant. Not saying it is impossible, but I just don't think the tooling and frameworks are there yet to make it practical or productive in comparison to say Go/Node/ASP.net/PHP/Python etc. Not saying any of those are better languages, just that they are more setup for the web model.
- krapp 12y ago
  There already is a C framework for web development, it's called PHP.
- _RPM 12y ago
  My question was about C, not Go. I think you are confused.
  - melling 12y ago
    No, I'm not confused. I'm trying to go a little deeper in people's answers than hammer/screwdriver analogies. Read what I wrote again. If C and Go are somewhat similar and Go can be used for web development then perhaps C can be enhanced for web development. Go provides templates and and an http library, for example. People aren't really answering the question.
    - yzzxy 12y ago
      C and Go are similar in design goals, but extremely different otherwise. As others have mentioned, Go has things like a GC that make development significantly simpler for apps that follow standard web patterns.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > Go is not too far removed from C. I think, where it comes to what is useful for web dev, Go is actually pretty far removed from C. OTOH, much of that could be overcome with an appropriate framework, and in fact there are C web frameworks. [0] [0] e.g., https://embedthis.com/esp/ https://embedthis.com/esp/
  - ddorian43 12y ago
    But it's commercial. Does c or c++ have a django or flask or ruby-on-rails alternative? Something that has some abstractions, is fast and has a nice community. (i would prefer flask alternative)

melling 12y ago

Why can't it be productive with a framework? What's missing? Go is used for web development. https://golang.org/doc/articles/wiki/ https://golang.org/doc/articles/wiki/ Go is not too far removed from C.

davismwfl 12y ago
I'd agree C could be used with a framework. But it is still not going to be as productive, specifically, think about all the memory management and overall resource management you will need to write code for. Even inside of Go you have a GC to help you as well as a concurrency model that already steers you in the right direction without the need to write a lot of code managing it. Go while sharing a lot of C does a huge amount of lifting and gluing for you that in C you would be writing or managing. Back in that late 90's early 2000's we wrote ISAPI extensions in C/C++ quite often for performance critical problems, e.g. searching etc. IIRC, ebay was also doing that because performance was so critical. But the difference between writing single extensions versus a full website in C is pretty significant. Not saying it is impossible, but I just don't think the tooling and frameworks are there yet to make it practical or productive in comparison to say Go/Node/ASP.net/PHP/Python etc. Not saying any of those are better languages, just that they are more setup for the web model.
krapp 12y ago
There already is a C framework for web development, it's called PHP.
_RPM 12y ago
My question was about C, not Go. I think you are confused.
- melling 12y ago
  No, I'm not confused. I'm trying to go a little deeper in people's answers than hammer/screwdriver analogies. Read what I wrote again. If C and Go are somewhat similar and Go can be used for web development then perhaps C can be enhanced for web development. Go provides templates and and an http library, for example. People aren't really answering the question.
  - yzzxy 12y ago
    C and Go are similar in design goals, but extremely different otherwise. As others have mentioned, Go has things like a GC that make development significantly simpler for apps that follow standard web patterns.
dragonwriter 12y ago
> Go is not too far removed from C. I think, where it comes to what is useful for web dev, Go is actually pretty far removed from C. OTOH, much of that could be overcome with an appropriate framework, and in fact there are C web frameworks. [0] [0] e.g., https://embedthis.com/esp/ https://embedthis.com/esp/
- ddorian43 12y ago
  But it's commercial. Does c or c++ have a django or flask or ruby-on-rails alternative? Something that has some abstractions, is fast and has a nice community. (i would prefer flask alternative)