On 09/28/2010 07:49 AM, Carl Jokl wrote:
I know this is the Java posse rather than the C/C++ posse but given that I believe a number of you have C/C++ experience I hoped you might help me with a question.
We'll try. But you know Java is good and C++ is bad already, right? :)
This isn't any kind of flame bate or provocation to argument I would just appreciate some honest opinion.
OK.
I wonder for those who have extensive C/C++ experience how productive a highly experience C/C++ developer can be relative to Java.
The highly experienced C++ programmers whom I know are all more productive than the highly experienced Java programmers.
Just look around: Firefox, Safari, the JVM, OpenOffice.org, Adobe Reader, etc. They are all C++ based products.
I can't find too many Java products out there except IDEs like NetBeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA.
I have been doing quite a bit of native work recently and have done some in the past but am not all that experience relative to the time spent with Java and .Net.
I have done both Java and C++ development. For me, personally, Java is more productive than C++ and I wouldn't choose C++ over Java unless there is a hurdle that Java just cannot jump through.
However, a C++ programmer (a very good one) once told me, "Java is a much easier language and Java programmers can write a lot of code in a short period of time. So Java programmers tend to write a lot of code." Implicit in the statement is that C++ projects tend to have less code, they also have a more thought out data structure layout, memory management strategies and better organization.
I know and understand the concepts of C/C++ but I can't say if feels natural yet. I find both Java and C# easier to read and understand.
You are not alone. Many C++ programmers I know are perfectly competent Java programmers. But not the other way around.
I do appreciate though that what is easy to read and understand depends on what you are used to and levels of experience. I am curious as to how easy and natural it feels with lots of experience. It is easier to ask someone with lots of experience than have to try working with it for many years to see how it feels.
Many Java developers who were C++ developers "switched" around 1996-98 and "never looked back."
However, C++ also evolved over the last decade and is now capable of being used in a way that is similar (that's a stretch, I know) to Java or C#. They seem to have found "C++: The Good Parts." The Boost libraries made C++ tolerable and sometimes quite adventurous to program in (boost::shared_ptr is indispensable for memory management, and boost:bind gives you closures.)
I remember seeing Ted Neward blog about the surprise he felt when he peeked into the Boost libraries a few years ago.
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