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Interview With Herb Sutter

Posted by Hemos on from the working-with-the-crowd dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Herb Sutter, a C++ luminary, recently joined Microsoft's Developer Platform and Evangelism Division, where he acts as a liaison between Microsoft and the C++ developer community. In this interview he speaks about his new job, the role of C++ in the .NET framework, and the current state of C++."

2 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Good advice at end... by zmower · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Always learn. Learn from the existing literature, C++ books and magazines and Web articles. They help you avoid reinventing well-known wheels. Learn different languages. They embody different ways of thinking. Learn different tools. They teach different ways of approaching problems. Most language zealots I've encountered think that their favorite language is the be-all and end-all, simply because they know few or no other languages. Know the various tools you have available to you, and you can do a much better job of selecting the right tools--plural, not singular--that will help you get your job done today.
    All good advice. Doesn't the last bit make you think "i.e. use UNIX!" But why does this guy still prefer C++ over Java/Ada/Python/<insert your favourite language (except C!) here>?

    <My C++ flame deleted.> What's the point? Use what you like but leave me to make my own choice. (I do have a C++ project so I know enough to know I don't like it!)

    --

    Sig pending!
  2. I will never understand... by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    ...What the deal is with C++. It's a terrible language with NO pre-thought design (Stroustroup has said in interviews that he doesn't think it's necessary to design a language before writing it) that is so badly broken that nobody has EVER made a fully compliant compiler (or, indeed, is even CAPABLE of making a fully complaint compiler). Herb Sutter says that you should go out and learn lots of languages if you want to be a better (C++) programmer, but the only thing that other languages taught me was how BAD C++ really is. I'm desperately hoping for C# to take over. Everything I've seen makes it a fair step up on C++. Java is a fine language, if you use it properly, and Squeak (http://www.squeak.org) Smalltalk is fun, simple programming. Objective-C is great for people that want to program in an object oriented, C based language, and there are legions of other languages that get barely used, even though they're super good.

    I program in C++, but I don't think I'll ever like it. The language is too big, too complicated, and gives bad programmers too many ways to blow their feet clean off. I believe in the original C language philosophy. Small, simple, fast, powerful.