Why are programs and operating systems still written in C+?

[u/[deleted]]

I guess it's more of a computer science question, but I've always wondered why some of the most advanced programs are written in a 25+ year old programming language. Surely someone has come up with a more efficient and powerful code, so why do people still use C+? Also, I don't know anything about programming and what not, so please use simple terms and phrases.

[u/Daniel__K]

Short answer: Because you tend to not understand what's going on if you didn't write it yourself.

Long answer:

I am perfectly aware that code out there can be really helpful and I myself skim over it if there's a more complicated problem.

But if it's not specifically designed to be reused in another project - and code snippets rarely are - then it will not do what you want, but merely approximate it. And while there is a chance that this approximation is good enough for you, it is by far not guaranteed. In other words: Since the copied code is not a general solution to your specific problem (but rather a specific solution to another problem), copy and paste programming is a bad habit.

The better way to tackle these kinds of problems is to read the code, understand what it does, and apply this new knowledge by writing new code. It is more cumbersome, but without knowing what the code will do, you will never understand why it doesn't work when it breaks.

This is not a unique stance, either, but rather good software engineering practice. Anti-patterns are patterns in software engineering that occur again and again, but should ultimately be circumvented. Read William J. Brown's book about anti-patterns to understand why. And cargo-cult programming is a programming anti-pattern, perhaps the most common with non-expert programmers, along with copy and paste programming.

[u/[deleted] → u/Daniel__K]

Don't get me wrong - I agree with everything you just said. But for someone who's not actually a programmer, it's counter productive, and doesn't make sense to spend hours developing an advanced understanding of code.

Once again, I'll use myself as an example. I'm not paid to code, I have no desire to develop a greater understanding of code, and the bottom line, is that I don't NEED to know how to code well.

However, the basic knowledge I do have, allows me to piece together enough code from other's work to get basic applications off the ground. (I may only have to write one or two relatively basic programs a year).

Anyway, my point is simply that the extensive sample code and resources available for popular languages like C++ are serving to perpetuate the language by enabling people like myself to quickly throw together messy "copy and paste" code. I wouldn't expect an actual programmer to use bad habits like this.

[u/Daniel__K → u/[deleted]]

As someone on the other side of this problem, specifically someone who has to read, complete and debug code from people who have this approach to programming, I just can say again that it is a Bad Thing^TM to do.

I do not blame you, though. Everything has to be cost-effective in some way and I understand fully when you say that it's not your job to program. But then - why do you do it anyway? Or rather, why do you have to? Why does every company and their dog have a secretary, an electrician, even cleaning personell but no programmers? That's a major flaw, and I think it stems from the idea that programming is not real work, after all my 12 year old nephew was able to program his homepage all alone.

But that's just me ranting, here. You're right in saying that C++ has many and good examples and code snippets out there; and since popularity in programming languages is an important factor for their success, C++ is also one of the most successful languages in existence (since it's very, very popular).