On Feb 21, 10:22 am, Nicola Musatti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Feb 21, 6:31 pm, Paul Boddie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > The main reason why C++ has declined in usage is because almost > > everything of practical value is optional.
No, disagree. > The main reason why C++ has declined in usage is because it never got > the kind of corporate marketing enjoyed by Java and C#. I'm inclined to disagree for two reasons. C++ is a very complex language. Java (and the later C#) less so. Couple that with reduced debugging time due to garbage collection and fewer pointer problems, a lot of us decided a factor of 2x in personal productivity was worth it. Runtime was initially an impediment, and still is for desktop applications, but the trade was worth it. Corporate marketing, and corporate attention in general, saw to it that Java was well equipped with libraries and frameworks addressing enterprise application needs. ...but the *big* reason Java won over C+ + is because your application became stable sooner. ...with arguably fewer problems later. And the migration to Python is due in large part because of an additional factor of 3-4x in personal productivity (over Java). Improvements in runtime performance wouldn't hurt, but for many applications that's not an issue. (If optional data typing were offered, Python's penetration in the enterprise space would be even higher, and I suspect there would be performance gains as well.) Larry -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
