[16s]

Big C++ fan here. I came to C++ after learning Python. I simply love it and the Boost libraries only make it better.

If I could only have one programming language, it would definitely be C++. I can do anything with it on any operating system. No vendor or IDE or build environment lock in. It's a solid ISO standard with multiple compiler support.

I still use bash, Python and Ruby for quick test scripts and prototyping and I like them as well.

[phamilton]

It's not a solid ISO standard. One of my coworkers recently gave me a c++ library to use. I linked to it and started making calls and found out that the STL from his compiler ( VS 2003) was incompatible with the STL from my compiler (VS 2010). They were simple things, like function calls that had their types changed, but nonetheless it rendered his library useless to me.

Compare to C, where everything is heavily standardized and you can use libraries from different compilers without much difficulty.