🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4kbfnf$1bu@news1.is.net>, mvantassel@teambca.com (Mark
VanTassel) wrote:

> linden@positive.eng.sun.com (Peter van der Linden) wrote:
> 
> >My personal belief is that C++ has peaked and will now go into a steady
> >decline.   But lets see some metrics proposed for measuring this.
> >Everyone's got an opinion ;-)
> 
> I don't have any metrics, per se - just an observation that "C" had
> remained "king of the hill" for several decades, refusing to be budged
> by any of DOZENS of "new and improved" languages...
> 
> ...until C++ came along.  C++ is now "king of the hill", and I have to
> point out that it's statistically unlikely that language "X" (X=Java,
> in this case) will overthrow it. Oh, I'm sure it'll happen eventually,
> but the odds are that C++ will survive nearly anything thrown at it
> (as if languages were contestants in a game called "global
> domination"!!!)

Who says C++ is now king of the hill?  I don't have the numbers to back
this up, but it's my understanding that despite the steady increase in C++
use, C is still used more widely.  A more correct statement would probably
be: C++ is now king of the large-and-complex-OS-API hill.

As for statistics relating to C++'s disputed dominance, I'm sure there
were many who thought:

The microprocessor was no threat to mainframes...
The LP would hold out against CD's...
Programmers would always prefer command-line interfaces...
That Wintel would domintate the world...

(Well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad  :)

Doug Bell
dbell@shvn.com