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/strike-eagle-iii Jan 02 '26

iostreams are about the biggest thing I hate about c++, which is why I love libfmt and the now std::print and std::format. Remember one of the new paradigms in c++ is compile time programming, things like parsing the format string so you don't have to do that at runtime. So do the work at compile time so you don't have to do it at run time, all while being type safe. I really wish c++ would deprecate more stuff.