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Comment by smitherfield | Hacker News Reader

> classes have the features of structs (and much more) at the cost of performance.

Not true; C++ classes have zero performance overhead over C/C++ structs (because they're just another word for the same thing).

Of course Python classes have a lot of costly features that C++ classes don't have, but the notion of a "class" (with methods, constructors etc) is not one of them.

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And also makes them look more complicated with more syntax. C++ has all those features that I will never know without adding performance. But people don't use Python for performance but ease of use.

In C++ ease of use is given up for the sake of performance. In python it is the other way.

Don't C++ classes (and therefore structs) have a hidden vtable?

Only if they have virtual members.

vtable is always "hidden". It's only there when there is at least one virtual member defined. Sole difference between class and struct in C++ is default visibility.

    class A {
        int a; // private
    }

    struct A {
        int a; // public
    }

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