Is C++ worth investing time in learning?

Question

With languages like C# that can basically do anything, I found a drawback that could not be the case in the future, and that is the lack of many open source 3rd party libraries that are well documented to choose from. However with C++, there are many libraries to choose from, and this is a big pro for me. One thing I want to get into is game programming, but XNA is too tied into Windows and Microsoft. OGRE looks fantastic to me, but it's a C++ library.

I have a basic knowledge of C++, but I don't know how to use pointers or know much about the STL. I do know that C++ does not hold your hand like C# does, but I'm willing to invest time in learning if it's worth it.

Answer 1

Figure out what you need to do, then learn the language you need to do it.

Answer 2

C++ is a great language to learn, if you have the time I would advise learning it for these reasons:

It is still widely used.

C++ is the predominant language used for programming all computer and console games. Systems programmers still use it and it is still used in some business applications (more are in C# these days though).

Pointers!

It will teach you how to use pointers. Pointers can save you memory and improve the speed of your program but more than anything you will learn a different point of view on how to write an application.

Memory Management

C# isn't going to teach you how to manage memory manually, ie:

Allocate memory in C++

MyClass *myObject = new MyClass();

Dealloc memory in C++

delete myObject;

It will blow up in your face

This is a good thing really (and probably applies to my point about pointers). C++ can be more difficult to program because you need to manage pointers, memory, write templates and many other reasons really. The error messages can be rather cryptic at times, but all of this will make you a much more defensive programmer and knowing C++ will help you to appreciate (or not) other languages more.

Learning the STL can be fun. I would start with vectors, lists, deques and iterators. If you ever need to program a game / game engine such as OGRE and run across one of these you will definitely need to learn how these work.

It is Cross Platform

When the hot job offer comes up for you one day to work for Nintendo, Sony or Blizzard, just remember that they write games in C++ not C# because the Wii, Playstation and Mac don't run on C#.

I believe that learning C++ is something everyone should do if they have the time because it is another useful tool in your toolkit, you will probably need to write some in your career anyway and knowing one of the most popular programming languages will only make you a better programmer.

Answer 3

C++ doesn't hold your hand, but it also allows you to shoot yourself in the foot! However, if you really want to get into gaming -which is a tough thing, I would strongly recommend that you go for C++. Here is another kinda similar question, you might wanna look at it too.

Answer 4

If you want to get into game programming C++ is the language for you. Pretty much every game company exclusively uses C and C++. Take your time, it can take years to become very good at C++. Pointers, STL (especially algorithms), and templates are all difficult.

Read books for starting on C++. When you are better, read Effective C++ and More Effective C++.

Answer 5

You want to be in gaming, which sounds fun but has a reputation for being long long thankless hours ;-)

Gaming is in two levels:

The graphics engine is written in a very low-level way using a fairly low level language such as c/c++, and sometimes where performance is critical, assembler. But even when in c++, you have to understand how the graphics pipeline actually works in order to use it efficiently. So you have to join common sense, a deep understanding of hardware, the corner-cutting e.g. pointers of the language, and often a good bit of algorithm understanding to be competitive.

Much of the high level plot and level code is written in a scripting language such as Lua.

Not being a master of the low levels will risk that you aren't effective programming at either of these two levels.

C and C++ are worth learning as a way to understanding how computers (in their current form) work. Its also worth learning something even lower, such as an assembly language and learning about caches and such.

An understanding of how computers work and how to program them in C/C++ is an extremely underrated step up when using high level languages such as C#, VB, Java etc in any part of our industry. Joel on Software (real the whole site, its written by one of our hosts and its why so many programmers found stackoverflow in the first place) has talked extensively about this e.g. "all good programmers should be able to handle recursion and pointers, and that this is an excellent way to tell if someone is a good programmer"

Answer 6

It's not so much that C# holds your hand as that C++ pushes you out of a plane and says "fly".

C++ is a very popular language for a reason. It gets the job done and is incredibly flexible. It can be used for virtually any kind of application. However it's not specifically engineered for many scenarios that are popular today (like web apps).

I think the best approach is to figure out what you're doing and then pick the best language to solve that problem. C++ can be used to build web apps, but I'd probably choose C#/VB.Net + MVC since it's designed to solve that problem.

I think part of the reason that you see more 3rd party libraries out there for C++ is simply that it's an older language. Only time will tell this point though.

Answer 7

C++ is great when you know what you are doing. It is a multiparadigm language that doesn't force you into One True Way of doing things. This gives you enough rope to shoot yourself (and/or your team) in the foot. Moderate amount of discipline is advised.

After figuring out what RAII is all about I can never get used to garbage collected languages -- they simply remove features (deterministic lifetime control, essential for generic resource management) to solve one easy subproblem (automatic memory management).

Definitely learn enough about pointers to be comfortable regardless. It forces you to think about lifetime and owership of objects from the start and that's never a bad habit.

Answer 8

You will not get a job as a programmer in the games industry without in-depth knowledge of C/C++. Period.

In games, if you are a tools or script programmer, there may be some requirement to learn C# or a scripting language.

Forget the hype about XNA, thats just the way it is today in the games industry.

Answer 9

Although I've never fully drunk the C++ cool-aid (which, back many years ago, may have been the reason I wasn't hired in Taligent, despite interviewing there... they HAD drunk said cool-aid;-), I have a pretty good command of the language and a grudging respect for it (partly nurtured through personal friendship with excellent C++ gurus like Matt Austern).

These days, my motto is "Python where I can, C++ where I must" -- and I've been pretty happy applying it for most of my programming (with occasional jaunts downwards into C or very occasionally assembly, midways into D, ObjC, Java, or C#, and up into [e.g.] bash, Haskell, Erlang, Boo, Scheme, Javascript, Scala, ... -- all of those are occasional adventures, C++ and Python, when all is said and done, are my daily bread and butter [and most of the jam too;-)]).

C++ is incredibly complicated and best applied as a subset through rigorous guidelines (these days I'm most familiar with google's, of course;-). But if proper discipline is observed C++ still has a lot to give you -- one of the best implementations of generic programming in a mainstream mostly-statically-typed language, good optimizers, high motivation to deal with "ownership issues" (for allocation/freeing) that garbage collected languages (almost all others;-) tend to push under the carpet (to occasional grief when resources aren't JUST easily-GC'd memory, ...).

For a soundbyte, you could say that C++ is the worst of all languages, except all the other languages which have been tried from time to time...;-)

Edit: just found a post from today (on a stockmarket-blogs aggregator site, of all places!-) which does an interesting job showing some economic consequences of choosing C++ vs Java for "deep server-side system infrastructure" projects -- it also has interesting links to similar analysis done by the Hypertable folks and others. Recommended reading for anybody who's sharing the doubts expressed in this question (though it would also help to see links about the costs -- in terms of programmer productivity, maintenance, time to market, etc -- of choosing C++ vs a higher-level language [esp. a garbage collected one like Java and most other modern languages], such comparisons are often hard to come by).

Answer 10

If theres one thing which will make you a complete programmer. Its C++ . One undergoes basic mathematics which starts with addition/subtraction, then linear equations, then 1D geometry, 2D, trigonometry, calculus. How many of us use these after we leave college. But these things make us smarter. Thats why they are taught world wide.

Same is the case with C++ .

Answer 11

Java can do everything C# can do and more and it has amazing community around it with lots of active open source projects for almost all imaginable areas. Some might even say that there is too much choice in Java land.

If you want to get into gaming there are alternatives to C++, if you are willing to look into mobile games and/or web games. Java and Flash are languages that are used quite often on those platforms and on the plus side allow you to focus more on the content and actual game rather than on the internals and memory management, with the benefit of getting stuff working faster and with less effort.

You always want to use the best tool for the job. 10 years ago C++ was king and was a natural choice for almost everything. Today there are not many jobs where C++ is a natural fit. Web and business applications are controlled by scripting and managed languages, embedded is still mostly C as far as I know, which leaves C++ only high performance and large code base applications and there are just not many of those (except AAA game titles).

Answer 12

C++ is a cool language if you want to really torment yourself. But as for real-world usefulness, its creator's statement, "I believe most people have figured out for themselves that C++ is a waste of time", tells a lot. There are better alternatives nowadays.

Answer 13

C++. while a horrible language (IMHO), is still worth learning because there is a lot of code floating around that uses it. The same applies to C. Personally the only reason I use C++ is

1. My employer told me to, or the project I amw orking on uses it
2. I am writing games (playing around with OGRE is kind of fun once you get the environment going, which was not entirely easy).
3. For experience. For some reason it always makes me love writing Python code afterwards ;)

Answer 14

I don't understand why such questions are allowed. They should be closed immediately.

Answer 15

I know of no other language, as good as C++ or better, that you can distribute without worrying that the user does not have the runtime.

And, while all other runtimes can be easily installed (OK, for C# its not easy) you'd be shocked how many users just won't be able to get it.

And C++ is still very highly desirous in the workforce, it is fast and it is stable.

Answer 16

As I understand it:

• C is assembler with macros.
• C++ is C with classes.
• So, C++ is assembler with macros and classes.

For gaming performance, your code will determine whether the game is sluggish and not fun or crisp and fast action. For that, you need to be as close to bare metal as possible. In the old days game developers write direct to the hardware, but nowadays Windows provides DirectX as a shim for universal hardware compatibility. To get the most out of DirectX, you want to write in C++ to gain full control over how memory is managed and where your processor cycles go.

Sure, you can write DirectX-based games in C#. In fact, you should try it to get to know the APIs. However, C# is really a high level business language. Business apps are not especially dependent on UI performance.