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An Interview With C++ Creator Bjarne Stroustrup
DevTool writes "Bjarne Stroustrup talks about the imminent C++0x standard and the forthcoming features it brings, the difficulties of standardizing programming languages in general, the calculated risks that the standards committee can afford to take with new features, and even his own New Year's resolutions."
It seems to me that most tasks that seem good for C++ would be better handled using a mix of an easier-to-program language (Ruby, Python, heck even lisp or smalltalk or anything else) with C extensions.
IMHO C++ seems not very good at very low-level programming; since with C++ it's not always obvious what a compiler might want to do with '+' thanks to operator overloading and rather convoluted implicit casting rules. In C you're using a pretty good tool for low-level programmings (especially with a dialect where you can sneak in a few assembly calls where you need to). In Ruby you're using a reasonably nice and efficient to develop in OO language. With the incredible ease of writing C extensions for Ruby, it's easy to use the best tool for each part of the job you're doing. The only compelling reason to use C++ I can think of is if some political policy forces you to use a single language for an entire project; and then I guess C++ not quite as clunky as java or c#.
( though I'm kinda repeating myself - a longer rant I made on slashdot about the pains of C++ years ago is here http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=100202&cid=8540772 . An even more condemning annoyance about C++ is that thanks to so many convoluted tricks in the language, most people who claim C++ knowledge don't actually know it, as evidenced by the comments in that old thread )
So, I am an unapologetic Qt freak.
It does everything pretty damn easily and extends your C++ compiler by using a MetaObjectCompiler (MOC pre-processor) and gives you most, not all, of what C++0xForever is promising. Platform independently.
Of you don't like Qt, then there is Boost. Both are just C++ libraries.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
The core Boost classes were written by guys on the C++0x committee - they were written with the intent of becoming part of the standard library eventually. It's nice to have commonly used libraries incorporated into the language standard, especially to standardize cross-platform interfaces to platform-dependent stuff like threads.
But some stuff like Lamba just gets better syntax sugar if you change the language instead of using a library. While I'm not all that happy with the new C++ lambda syntax (what's wrong with making lamba a keyword, guys? same for you C# guys?), is still way easier than the Boost lamba syntax.
And some stuff like move semantics are just an outright fix to the language. Vector will stop requiring that Foo be copyable - finally!
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