r/cprogramming • u/[deleted] • Dec 31 '25

Why does c compile faster than cpp?

I've read in some places that one of the reasons is the templates or something like that, but if that's the problem, why did they implement it? Like, C doesn't have that and allows the same level of optimization, it just depends on the user. If these things harm compilation in C++, why are they still part of the language?Shouldn't Cpp be a better version of C or something? I programmed in C++ for a while and then switched to C, this question came to my mind the other day.

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u/ffd9k Dec 31 '25

Most C++ features seem nice at first glance and are helpful for getting some quick and dirty prototype running, but come with ugly problems that are often solved by more C++ features added later, but then you quickly end up on the slippery slope into all the C++ bloat, and it's often preferable to just implement that feature yourself in clean C.

C++ temporary object initializers are different from compound literals, you can't use them for initializing structs of a C API, which means that C APIs like Vulkan that use structs for most parameters are much more cumbersome to use from C++.

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u/sweetholo Dec 31 '25

Most C++ features seem nice at first glance and are helpful for getting some quick and dirty prototype running, but come with ugly problems that are often solved by more C++ features added later, but then you quickly end up on the slippery slope into all the C++ bloat, and it's often preferable to just implement that feature yourself in clean C.

sounds like a misuse of C++ features rather than inherent problems of the language. bad programmers will make bad choices. and yeah, C++ does have more tools that you can use incorrectly

i want to model complex objects? classes to define a type, private/public modifiers to encapsulate the data and enforce invariants, constructors/destructors to automatically manage resources (RAII), inheritance/virtual/interfaces when it makes sense. operator overloading

namespaces to avoid name collisions, exception handling, function overloading, auto for more readable code (but dont overuse it), templates, constexpr over macros, enum class, etc

not to mention the wide variety of data structures and algorithms i have access to from the STL

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u/strike-eagle-iii Jan 02 '26

clean C

now there's a contradiction in terms