Bill <bill_nos...@whoknows.net>: > Steve D'Aprano wrote: >> Bjarne Stroustrup is famous for designing one of the most >> heavyweight, baraque, hard-to-understand, difficult-to-use >> programming languages in common use. While C++ has many excellent >> features, and is constrained by the need to be compatible with C, I >> don't think many people believe that it is a well-designed language. > > It is a well-designed language. It is and was carefully thought out. > One could argue that there are perhaps "too many ways" to do a given > thing in Python (one could say it's features are "not orthogonal"). I'm > sure you are familiar with where the language drew its name. I'm not > here to "cast stones", I like Python. I just think that you shouldn't > cast stones at C/C++.
One is allowed to have opinions and express them. We are not talking about religion here. I don't like everything in Python. On the whole, though, it is an excellent language. In practice, it is the best available tool for most programming needs I face. There are situations where C++ is suitable. Its primary advantage over C is the automatic generation of the virtual table. However, having programmed in C++ for a decade or so, it has left a bad taste in my mouth. Its core philosophy (ie, do the utmost at compile time) is cumbersome and misplaced. Until very recently, C++ didn't offer a good way to implement callback functions, for example. > People started programming in C in the late 70's, For the most part, I like C much better than C++, even though the standards committees have been working hard to sabotage it. > One thing you didn't bring up at all, is that the audiences for the > languages appears to be different. You still need folks who can encode > data structures and write device drivers, from scratch. And "woe" if > you need performance, such as applications involving AI. For performance-critical stuff, I use C. For the rest, I use Python and bash. There are other excellent languages, but they don't have a real market niche between C and Python. Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list