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<> wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, 27. September 2012 10:44:23 UTC+2 schrieb Brian:
>> I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
>> language. I thought it would be a good question to ask in this newsgroup
>> that has programmers that have been using C++ for a while. I did read
>> that its popular because it can be transferred to other platforms but
>> not everyone has more than one platform. -- Regards Brian
>
> 1) As Krice already mentioned its multi-paradigm is a big advantage. Even
> in the same project you can switch between structural programming,
> object-based programming and object-oriented programming. Of course one
> would prefer OO but often there is working legacy ANSI-C (or even K&R-C)
> code that has to be used.

I like a structured language but it must be difficult lining up those curly
brackets when trying to read a C++ program.

>
> 2) My favorite reason is: because C++ is *alive* ! I don't know no other
> language that has changed so much over time.

But the code is still the same unless they have added more code commands.

>
> I can remember when the first compilers came out that really could
> handle templates. It took quite a while for the C++ community to get
> behind that new feature. The outcome was the STL and a totally new
> programming paradigm: generic programming.
>
> Now with C++11 the language recently changed even further. There are
> now multi-core CPUs everywhere. And thus support for multithreading
> (*finally*) has been added to C++.
>
> And all this did not break existing code! With your newest top-notch
> C++ compiler you can still compile your old K&R stuff from 1978 ...

I can see that this would be an advantage. If I came across c++ code in a
old book then it should still work.

--
Regards Brian

Paavo Helde <> wrote:
> Brian <> wrote in news:792154042370428054.785525bclark-
> :
>
>> I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
>> language.
>
> It isn't. Some other languages like C, Java and Objective-C are more
> popular. See
> http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/conte...pci/index.html
>
> In principle, one should choose the language according to the problem what
> one is trying to resolve. If one is planning to do a multi-million line
> complex and fast system, C++ is a good candidate (along with Ada and some
> others). OTOH, a hundred line program can be written in anything.

In that case what is Visual Basic useful for?

--
Regards Brian

Paavo Helde <> wrote:
> Rui Maciel <> wrote in
> news:k425g6$hvo$:
>
>> Paavo Helde wrote:
>>
>>> It isn't. Some other languages like C, Java and Objective-C are more
>>> popular. See
>>> http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/conte...pci/index.html
>>
>> Again with this TIOBE nonsense. Using the tiobe index to base any
>> claim on the popularity of a programming language makes as much sense
>> as searching for the name of a programming language on youtube, and
>> claiming that it is more popular than another because the search
>> returned more hits. Because that's precisely how the the people
>> behind TIOBE rank programming languages.
>
> Yeah, I brought up TIOBE as it looked like an exact match for the OP-s
> weird claim ("C++ is the most preferred language"). All this popularity
> stuff is quite meaningless anyway, so counting hits is no worse or better
> than any other method IMO. PHP is very popular, it does not mean that it
> would be a good idea to write my image analysis code in PHP.
>
> Cheers
> Paavo

Most of those surveys seem to have C++ at or near the top of the list.
To put it another way why should C++ be more popular than Visual Basic as
Visual Basic is easy to learn and there is less code to write?

--
Regards Brian

Scott Lurndal <> wrote:
> Rui Maciel <> writes:
>> wrote:
>>
>>> 2) My favorite reason is: because C++ is *alive* ! I don't know no other
>>> language that has changed so much over time.
>>
>> If you are a fan of C++ because of that then you would love Fortran.
>
> Or object-oriented COBOL.
>
> There's still a lot of COBOL running out there in legacy systems.
>
> scott

From memory Fortran was a Science language and Cobol was a Business
language. It didn't think that those languages were still supported then
again there are still some Quick Basic programmers.

--
Regards Brian

Brian <> wrote:
> I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
> language. I thought it would be a good question to ask in this newsgroup
> that has programmers that have been using C++ for a while.
> I did read that its popular because it can be transferred to other
> platforms but not everyone has more than one platform.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I see some programming languages as having
restrictions such as if I wanted to colour a ball then I might only have
the colours that the programing language offers me but what if I didn't
like the choices and wanted a different colour or maybe I wanted a shape
like a pear instead of a circle shaped ball but the only shapes offered
were square and circle. Maybe languages like C++ gives the programmer more
scope to design exactly what the programmer wants.
I know that early programming languages such as Basic had these
restrictions.

--
Regards Brian

On 09/28/12 03:56 PM, Brian wrote:
> Nick Keighley<> wrote:
>> On Sep 27, 9:44 am, Brian<bcl...@es.co.nz> wrote:
>>
>>> I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
>>> language. I thought it would be a good question to ask in this newsgroup
>>> that has programmers that have been using C++ for a while.
>>> I did read that its popular because it can be transferred to other
>>> platforms but not everyone has more than one platform.
>>
>> to some extent its momentum, it's popular because it's popular. It's
>> apparent similarity to C probably has some historical significance. As
>> others have noted efficiency and access to the underlying machine is
>> important.
>>
>> I'm curious, why do you care?
>
> I ask myself why should people program in C++ when Visual Basic is easier
> to understand?

Because it can only be used on windows?

--
Ian Collins

Brian wrote:

> I ask myself why should people program in C++ when Visual Basic is easier
> to understand?

Visual Basic is far from being free from criticism.

Nevertheless, some people don't program in C++ or even know how to, and they
still do quite well using some other programming language. There are plenty
of alternatives out there, and they aren't necessarily better or worse than
C++: only different.


Rui Maciel

On Sep 28, 4:56*am, Brian <bcl...@es.co.nz> wrote:
> Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nos...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sep 27, 9:44 am, Brian <bcl...@es.co.nz> wrote:

> >> I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
> >> language. I thought it would be a good question to ask in this newsgroup
> >> that has programmers that have been using C++ for a while.
> >> I did read that its popular because it can be transferred to other
> >> platforms but not everyone has more than one platform.
>
> > to some extent its momentum, it's popular because it's popular. It's
> > apparent similarity to C probably has some historical significance. As
> > others have noted efficiency and access to the underlying machine is
> > important.
>
> > I'm curious, why do you care?
>
> I ask myself why should people program in C++ when Visual Basic is easier
> to understand?

!!!!

Visual Basic I've seen looks pretty messy and it locks you to windows.

> There must be a reason why C++ is chosen when there are many other
> languages to chose from.

portabilty, low level access if needed, efficiency, portable,
availability of programmers, availability of programming environments

> Maybe some people grow up with C and then moved on to C++ and its close to
> what they had used in the past.

yes

On Sep 28, 4:56*am, Brian <bcl...@es.co.nz> wrote:
> BGB <cr88...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > On 9/27/2012 3:44 AM, Brian wrote:
> >> I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
> >> language. I thought it would be a good question to ask in this newsgroup
> >> that has programmers that have been using C++ for a while.
> >> I did read that its popular because it can be transferred to other
> >> platforms but not everyone has more than one platform.
>
> > because it sucks less than the other options?...
>
> > many people tend to thing of things in terms of being "better" or "more
> > preferable" (like there is some significant "good" that pulls people toa
> > particular solution), but I suspect this may be backwards.
>
> > I suspect, instead, people tend to avoid serious drawbacks, and the
> > option the with least serious drawbacks wins by default.
>
> > historically, both C and C++ have been in a fairly good spot here.
> > this may be partly due to being reasonably free of crippling design flaws
> > (or, at least real design flaws, as opposed to people complaining that it
> > doesn't really follow idiom-X or fad-Y or prevents bad-practice-Z).
>
> > whereas, many other languages have had maybe a few nifty features, but
> > often at the cost of being seriously crippled or broken in some other
> > area (often denied, downplayed, or claimed to actually be a feature, by
> > people who endorse the language...).
>
> > usually, this is not about idioms, but rather, things which impede using
> > the language in one way or another (such as awkward or unreadable syntax,
> > broken semantics, ...), or limit its effectiveness at performing an
> > operation (such as arbitrary limitations, poor performance, tendency to
> > misbehave or be overly difficult to debug, ...).
>
> > so, most people largely end up using what works...
>
> > though, this is not to say it is perfect either, for that matter...
>
> Delphi use to be popular because it had a good structure when writing code.
> I have programmed in Visual Basic but after a while the structure starts to
> look untidy with too many programming words and so the program flow can be
> difficult to see. So I'm looking at other programming languages and notice
> that many seem to follow C with the curly brackets etc.
> If I were to ask software companies what language the program they are
> selling in written in then I have a feeling the answer would be either C or
> C++.

yes but that's just a feeling. Complex products are often programmed
in a variety of languages. Languages like Python and Ruby are quick to
develop in but sometimes run rather sluggishly. C++ can be used in the
important bits to make everything go faster. Java is pretty popular as
is C#. Though you might see them as having a C-like syntax.

> There are many programming languages to chose from but for some reason
> people seem to chose C++ maybe its the language that's taught in schools.

On Sep 28, 5:17*am, Brian <bcl...@es.co.nz> wrote:
> Paavo Helde <myfirstn...@osa.pri.ee> wrote:
> > Rui Maciel <rui.mac...@gmail.com> wrote in
> >news:k425g6$hvo$:
>
> >> Paavo Helde wrote:
>
> >>> It isn't. Some other languages like C, Java and Objective-C are more
> >>> popular. See
> >>>http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/conte...pci/index.html
>
> >> Again with this TIOBE nonsense. *Using the tiobe index to base any
> >> claim on the popularity of a programming language makes as much sense
> >> as searching for the name of a programming language on youtube, and
> >> claiming that it is more popular than another because the search
> >> returned more hits. *Because that's precisely how the the people
> >> behind TIOBE rank programming languages.
>
> > Yeah, I brought up TIOBE as it looked like an exact match for the OP-s
> > weird claim ("C++ is the most preferred language"). All this popularity
> > stuff is quite meaningless anyway, so counting hits is no worse or better
> > than any other method IMO. PHP is very popular, it does not mean that it
> > would be a good idea to write my image analysis code in PHP.
>
> > Cheers
> > Paavo
>
> Most of those surveys seem to have C++ at or near the top of the list.
> To put it another way why should C++ be more popular than Visual Basic as
> Visual Basic is easy to learn and there is less code to write?

only until you start doing real work (ie. non-GUI). As poited out
before Visual Basic is totally tied to Windows.