[cjfd]

Sure, C++ is complicated. And the way templates are compiled is positively weird, which in turn sometimes leads to long compilation times. The 'select your subset' thing is often repeated, but I do not see much of that. I am a bit worried, though, that C++ seems to keep growing to the point where it really might get to big and complicated.

Quick prototyping is not something that I do. Nor am I very much interested in it. At my place of work I have seen it done around me after which it was my task to turn the python prototype into C++. The most surprising thing there was how far the prototype turned out to be from what was actually needed, to the point where I very much question whether the prototyping exercise was useful at all. YMMV regarding this, of course.

[morenoh149]

A python prototype is useful for specifying the correct program behavior. It's useful as a guide for later implementors. Better than a spec in a word document.