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Software taketh away faster than hardware giveth: Why C++ programmers keep growing fast despite competition, safety, and AI (herbsutter.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org to c/programming@programming.dev

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To put C++’s growth in context:

Compared to all languages: There are now more C++ developers than the #1 language had just four years ago. Compared to Rust: Each of C++, Python, and Java just added about as many developers in one year as there are Rust total developers in the world.

Whoa. That are some carefully selected numbers. It is like saying that I am earning much better money than my 16-year-old nephew (who just finished school), and that, because my job is installing and servicing coal stoves and coal stoves are still used in large part of the country, the coal stove industry is in a totally healthy state.

Hmm. Sounds like C++ is losing ground to Rust - which is much younger - fast.

Especially considering that according to the Stack Overflow surveys, young programmers tend to get into C++, but experienced developers clearly prefer Rust.

Of course, C++ isn't going to dissppear. It will continue to be used for a long time, especially in old, mature code bases. But the same is true for COBOL. And very few new projects use COBOL. In the same way as some scholars and archeologists need to know Latin, but very few publish research or write new books in Latin - even if it was the language of science just a couple hundred years ago.

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[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Rust for embedded targets has made rapid progress. In fact, if I want to run command-line applications on my Linux/Sailfish PDA, the easiest way is to cross-compile a Rust app.

Also, things which C was formerly used for, like writing to I/O memory registers, is easy in (unsafe) Rust. It was made for that.

Rust is also beginning to be used in satellite and space engineering.

What of course still needs to catch up is architecture support. But once gcc can compile Rust code, most relevant targets are available. Especially since one can call platform support libraries via the C ABI - and Rust can easily be called from C.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Tbh, that a good language can be used in a context doesn't mean it's a good choice.

Java, Python, C++, ... can run in WASM and thus in a browser, but if you need anything, all examples, all libraries and everything else will be in JS/TS. Pretty much any language in existence is better than JS/TS, but hardly any language is better for browser scripting.

So for a language to really make sense to be used in a context, you need all the supporting stuff for that too.