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Facebook Has a New Private Mobile Photo-Sharing App, and They Built It In C++
jfruh writes: Facebook [on Monday] announced Moments, a new mobile app that uses Facebook's facial recognition technology to let you sync up photos only with friends who are in those photos with you. Somewhat unusually for a new app, the bulk of it is built in the venerable C++ language, which turned out to be easier for building a cross-platform mobile app than other more "modern" languages.
a station wagon full of #ifdefs hurtling down the information superhighway.
If C++ is "the best tool" for cross-platform mobile app development, then the state of mobile app development is in a sorry state indeed.
Seriously if C++ is the best we can do for *anything*, then we need to just throw in the towel and go back to pencil and paper right now.
Taking such a strident and dogmatically absolutist stance on the usefulness of any language indicates a lack of experience in the field and a narrowness of understanding of the field. It sounds like someone told you it was really, really bad, and, knowing nothing else, you simply repeat what they said.
C++ is, syntactically, not my favorite language. It's not even my second favorite language. But for its breadth of application, the ubiquity of compilers on any platform, and the sheer volume of useable libraries, it is up there on my list.
I'd like to add that with employers intruding more and more on our personal lives - we are on the clock 24/7 these days even though we're only paid for 40 hours. They are starting to scrutinize every aspect of our lives.
And what I find disturbing is that younger folks, who grew up with facebook and other crap like that, think nothing of posting pictures of parties or other gatherings where one might be doing something that your current or future employer may find objectionable.
I am more paranoid about what a backgroundcheck would turn up than even government persecution - I haven't started hiding Mulsims from stormtroopers yet in my basement. But being denied employment because someone put a photo of me holding a tray of shots and hanging out with some cross dressing friends frightens me. The job is too capricious and managing ones image is extremely important - and it is a sucky World that we live in - thanks corporate America for having privatized Stasi!
Neptune. Software written in C++ on Neptune would be very unusual.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson