The TIOBE index claims that the popularity of C++ is waning, and is currently wa
ID: 652773 • Letter: T
Question
The TIOBE index claims that the popularity of C++ is waning, and is currently way below C and Java. Echoing this claim, a blogger suggested today, that because C++ is going out of fashion, C++ programmers might be a bargain relative to other programmers.
As a C++ programmer, I don't want to be left behind, if the industry moves on to something else, and I certainly don't want to be a "bargain".
I've been programming in C++ for many years, and clunky as C++ may seem, in my current field (scientific/numeric programming), I just don't see any good alternatives, even though I've looked at dozens of languages. They seem to be either slow, less portable or even clunkier than C++.
So, my question is, are there reliable figures for the popularity of different languages, and C++ in particular, in the industry?
I'm skeptical that C++ is on its way out, because 75% of the qualified Google Code Jam entries were in C++ this year (This does not include the C entries)
Explanation / Answer
Your supposition is flawed. TIOBE is a worthless joke. I might as well just make up statistics on language usage. They'd probably be more accurate.
Second, many of the newer popular languages- they don't leave C++ behind. C++ left them behind. It's difficult to label something like Java or C# a "higher level language" when they can't even have free functions, or any of a dozen other things that C++ programmers take for granted. This means that if you go from C++ to something else, the overwhelming probability is that you will not be dealing with any new paradigms or significant new language features- you will be dealing with, effectively, C++ but less. (and some of the bigger annoyances like the preprocessor are cut, at least). This is a far easier transition than the other way around.
Related Questions
drjack9650@gmail.com
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.