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by cheponis 6652 days ago
Does anybody use C++ anymore? I use Python and, when doing embedded programming, C (and maybe a pinch of assembly).

I'm playing with Arc.

I suppose people who write Microsoft apps may still write C++ but most of them have moved to C#.

5 comments

I use C++. Garbage collection is nice, but slow. The language is not suitable for web development, or for GUI development, but it's great for backend enterprise software/libraries that need to be fast and stable and compile across most architectures out there.
> The language is not suitable for web development, or for GUI development

WTF? Are you aware of the ridiculous number of examples in both?

If you want to do web development or develop a GUI it's easier and faster to work with another language.
The video game industry is built on C++.
I can vouch for that too, and I think it'll probably be another 4 or 5 years before any other language starts to make significant inroads into game code. I've worked with people in games who simply don't know any other languages. (You can be a perfectly solid C++ programmer without needing to know anything about, say, Ruby or Scheme, but in my opinion, the more you learn about programming in general, the better programmer you will be.)
Embedded programmers only code in C because they haven't yet discovered C++ (seriously...embedded programming is like living in the 70s).

C++ will be all the rage in embedded circles in the 2020 decade.

ok, ok, vendors are at fault too.
A good number of avionics software teams are moving from Ada to C and/or C++.
Would the person who down-modded me please drop me email to yc@culver.net and explain, in detail, WHY they did this? Presumably, the "in-crowd" who can downmod is telling me that, somehow, my question should NOT be on hacker news. Or something. I'm terribly perplexed. Thank you for your response (if, indeed, you are man enough to respond!)
I didn't downmod you, but I imagine someone had a problem with the question "Does anybody use C++ anymore?". Around here, probably not that many, but there is both a mountain of legacy code, and a good many domains where it's still appropriate (game development being a big one).

And, I guess, even more domains where it's not still appropriate, but where it's still used anyway. :)

Thanks - very much. It is an honest question - if this is a "community", wouldn't you think community members would give me the benefit of the doubt? I have never seen C++ used in my entire career. I'm MIT 6-3A '76 - maybe I'm sheltered in only hanging out with excellent programmers.

(aside: the gutless wonders who downvoted my original question did not respond to me directly at yc@culver.net - I suppose those folks are having their teenage fun trying to destroy this community? I have a proposal: whenever any of the "anointed " members of this community downmod anybody, they should be <b>required</b> to provide to the original poster a) their EMAIL ADDRESS so that the poster could respond, and b) their REASON for their action. In addition, I believe that NOBODY should be allowed more downmodding than upmodding - that is, you have to have "upmod points" before you're allowed to downmod - even if you are a Chosen One in the Secret Handshake Society of the YC Cult.)

You might want to toughen up a little bit before you open your mouth on the internet. Seriously, people are going to disagree from you from time to time.
They would be, of course, wrong. ;-)