[rubashov]

Concur. C++ compilation speed was legitimately a problem five years ago. Improved compilers, faster computers, and multi-core compilation have made it moot.

Often you'll see a C++ basher bring up compilation speed and then in the same thread advocate python + C as the happy medium, which I find crazy. C++ is so much higher level than C the need for scripting is often obviated. I've typically got about 2x SLOC expansion rewriting perl/python as C++, including stuff like headers, so really not much more code at all, just 100x faster and a tiny fraction the memory.

The other line you see, including elsewhere on this page right now, is that C and C++ are the right tool for the job in different domains. I really don't get this. C++ is straight-up a replacement for C. There is no C program that wouldn't be shorter and clearer rewritten as C++. The only occasion to not use C++ is when you don't have compiler support, which is extremely rarely a concern anymore. Even the lowest level embedded stuff is moving away from C in favor of C++.