Bulldozer00's Blog

Even though I’m a huge fan of the man, I was quite skeptical when I heard Bjarne Stroustrup enunciate: “C++ feels like a new language“. Of course, Bjarne was talking about the improvements brought into the language by the C++11 standard.

Well, after writing C++11 production code for almost 2 years now (17 straight sprints to be exact), I’m no longer skeptical. I find myself writing code more fluidly, doing battle with the problem “gotchas” instead of both the problem and the language gotchas. I don’t have to veer off track to look up language technical details and easily forgotten best-practices nearly as often as I did in the pre-C++11 era.

It seems that the authors of the “High Integrity C++” coding standard agree with my assessment. In a white paper summarizing the changes to their coding standard, here is what they have to say:

Even though C++’s market niche has shrunk considerably in the 21st century, it is still widely used throughout the industry. The following chart, courtesy of Scott Meyers’ recent talk at Facebook, shows that the old-timer still has legs. The pending C++14 and C++17 updates virtually guarantee its relevance far into the future; just like the venerable paper clip and spring-loaded mouse trap.