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Ask Slashdot: Is C++ the Right Tool For This Project?

Posted by Soulskill on from the yes-no-maybe dept.

ranton writes: I am about to start a personal project which I believe should be done in C/C++. The main reasons I have for this are the needs to manage memory usage and disk access at a very granular level and a desire to be cross-platform. Performance is also important but I am unlikely to spend enough time optimizing to be much faster than core libraries of higher level languages.

On the other hand, network access is also a critical part of the project and I am worried about the effort it takes to make cross platform code for both network and disk access. I have been working in the Java / C# world for the past decade and things like TCP/IP and SSL have just been done for me by core libraries. Do libraries like Boost or Asio do a good job of abstracting these aspects away? Or are there other options for doing granular memory and disk management with more high level languages that have better cross-platform library support? I am willing to brush up on my C/C++ skills if necessary but want to spend as much time as possible developing the unique and potentially innovative parts of my project. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

2 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. If you cannot answer your own question.. by thesupraman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Then C++ is almost certainly not the language for you, unless it is a pure learning experience.

    Really.. C++ is a relatively high commitment language, and performance is one of its mainstays, however you dont feel you will spend much time optimising it?
    If you cannot look quite quickly over the descriptions of Boost/ASIO and see what they do (and dont) bring to the table, then you will be fighting a very
    uphill battle.

    The reference to TCP/IP being 'done for you' is worrying.. do you think people program raw TCP in C++?

    If you value your project at all then I would suggest C++ is not sounding like your solution.. especially if you need cross
    platform. Your reasons seem almost to be reasons NOT to use an unfamiliar language.

    As almost everything else has equal or better cross platform support, it seems to me like you need to look more closely to what you mean/need by
    'granularity' and perhaps change your mentality using familiar languages, and the solutions for problems in those areas.

  2. Re:If you do go with C++ by gladish · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I think that really depends on your definition of "best". I've used Qt (and still use it sometimes) and initially I thought I liked it, but over time began disliking it a lot. For one, I've seen the signal/slot mechanism used to create really hard to understand code. I've seen memory allocated via new and then the pointer passed into emit only to be deleted on the other end of a signal/slot chain.

    Posted says, "needs to manage memory usage and disk access at a very granular level and a desire to be cross-platform". Stdio/stdlib takes care of that. I don't see any mention of GUI, so if GUI is necessary, then I'd say, ya, just use Qt, because it probably is the best and it does come with a lot of other stuff, so you when in Rome...

    Boost. What you'll get from boost is the filesystem stuff. It'll be similar in functionality as System.IO.FileInfo System.IO.Directory in .NET, but way more confusing to use. At least at first.

    It's funny, the filesystem api was proposed over 9 years ago for c++.

    http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/s...