thanks all for being positive, i was wary that those on the 9fans list might be a bit dismissive of c++.
i have been on a 3 day course and have been reading the c++ primer, and have effective c++ also, so i seem well equipped. the environment i am to use is Qt based as it has to be cross platform, though we hope to try to keep the core vanilla STL based. so far i have written a couple of hundred lines of c++, but for me the problem i see is how to develop a sense of c++ style. I want to write good code, but I don't even know what good c++ code looks like! i will press on with it, and read the pointers that have been suggested. thanks again. -Steve ps i am studiously not reading anything about go in case it distracts me... :-)