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In Defense of C++

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185 points todsacerdoti | 2 comments | 16 Sep 25 19:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.405s | source
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gmueckl ◴[16 Sep 25 21:29 UTC] No.45268341[source]▶
C++ will always stay relevant. Software has eaten the world. That transition is almost complete now. The languages that were around when it happened will stay deeply embedded in our fundamental tech stacks for another couple decades at least, if not centuries. And C and C++ are the lion's share of that.

COBOL sticks around 66 years after its first release. Fortran is 68 years old and is still enormously relevant. Much, much more software was written in newer languages and has become so complex that replacements have become practically impossible (Fuchsia hasn't replaces Linux in Google products, wayland isn't ready to replace X11 etc)

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1. pornel ◴[17 Sep 25 03:17 UTC] No.45271226[source]▶
It seems likely that C++ will end up in a similar place as COBOL or Fortran, but I don't see that as a good future for a language.

These languages are not among the top contenders for new projects. They're a legacy problem, and are kept alive only by a slowly shrinking number of projects. It may take a while to literally drop to zero, but it's a path of exponential decay towards extinction.

C++ has strong arguments for sticking around as a legacy language for several too-big-to-rewrite C++ projects, but it's becoming less and less attractive for starting new projects.

C++ needs a better selling point than being a language that some old projects are stuck with. Without growth from new projects, it's only a matter of time until it's going to be eclipsed by other languages and relegated to shrinking niches.

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2. pjmlp ◴[17 Sep 25 12:26 UTC] No.45275023[source]▶
It will take generations to fully bootstrap compiler toolchains, language runtimes, and operating systems that depend on either C or C++.

Also depending on how AI assisted tooling evolves, I think it is not only C and C++ that will become a niche.

I already see this happening with the amount of low-code/no-code augmented with AI workflows, that are currently trending on SaaS products.