Hacker News Reader

Comment by justanotheratom | Hacker News Reader

C++ should be known for the amount of collective brain cycles wasted on arguing what subset of C++ is the right one to use.

View on HN

Professionals know what tool to use for a job. Does it take time to become good? Of course, like anything.

Not a question of difficulty or skill. I am saying professionals can't agree what subset to use!

They don't have to. The subset depends on the job! That's the beauty and power of C++. That's why we have projects written in it in all domains. From websites to spaceships and Mars rovers.

yes, and you will tell me exactly what subset and coding convention "makes sense" for this domain, and you will give your reasoning too. And I will give my arguments, and on and on it goes. teams have broken up over this.

A well-designed language is one in which there are very few different ways of doing the same thing. And C++ is definitely not that.

Why would a well designed language have only one or few ways to do the same thing? Seems rather arbitrary. I like when I have many ways to do the same thing.

Imagine if you told a writer or poet that English is bad because there is more than one way to say the same thing...

Programming languages are for people more than machines. Machines are happy with microcode.

RE: Why would a well designed language have only one or few ways to do the same thing?

So that you focus on solving the problem at hand, instead of endlessly arguing over decisions that are irrelevant to solving the said problem.

That's the thing though, each similar problem is subtly different. Those differences can matter and the language should allow you to model them.

Another feature of a well-designed language is how well it is able to separate features for library writers vs application writers. I have seen way too many smart coders end up polluting application code with unnecessarily complex features of C++ meant for library writers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com