If you didn’t already know it, I’m a fan of the C++ programming language. Of course, not everybody feels the same way. There are many smart people who are among the “haters“.
C++ is a horrible language. It’s made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it’s much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it. – Linus Torvalds
When I read anti-C++ tirades like Linus Torvalds’ emotionally charged attack, it always stings a little at first. But then I eventually step back from the “emotional-me” and remember (thanks to the teachings of Byron Katie and Eckart Tolle) that the world will never be the way I “demand!” it to be. The length of time it takes me to disengage from abstract thought-storms like these and return to earth is proportional to how deeply I’m attached to one side of the debate stomping around in my head.
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Java creator James Gosling, Haskell‘s Bartosz Milewski, and Go creator Rob Pike are three of the more prominent people in the anti-C++ camp. As expected, they have agendas to promote: advocating their own favorite programming languages at the expense of C++.
- Milewski’s rant: “Edward C++Hands“
- Pike’s rant: “Less Is Exponentially More“
- Gosling’s rant: “The Java Language Environment“
Ironically, these rants by smart and well known people can be construed as tributes to C++. That’s probably why this is one of my favorite Bjarne Stroustrup quotes:
There are just two kinds of languages: the ones everybody complains about and the ones nobody use.
