On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 7:19 PM, Greg Ewing <greg.ew...@canterbury.ac.nz>wrote:
> On 03/11/11 04:31, Ian Mallett wrote: > >> C++ is a pain to learn, but it's definitely worth it. In my >> opinion it's the best compiled language. >> > > I'm afraid I can't share your opinion of C++. I liked it myself > at first, but after 10 years or so of experience I came to > the conclusion that it goes to extreme lengths to solve a > problem you shouldn't be having in the first place. > > My opinion now is that if what you're doing is too big to do > easily in plain C, you should be using a language that provides > you with properly isolated high-level abstractions -- such > as Python, for example. :-) > Oh definitely. I just think that if you're going to go with a compiled language, a good general purpose one is C++. If I want to hack something up quickly, I'll use Python. I contend that good design is definitely possible with C++ (in a way that it often isn't with C), but that yes, it can take a while to get right. However, I often tell students that, although having an elegant, structured design is desirable--being so simple as to require only a basic one is better. For projects of most practical scopes (like a simple game or utility), you don't need anything too involved. Ian
