When you hear me speaking about C++, you probably notice the passion. I might expose a similar passion when I pinpoint some of Java’s weaknesses. Maybe I do sound like “Dick” in the article Java is Slow! at The Daily WTF?
From GW-BASIC on my first computer I went through QBasic, QuickBasic, QuickC and Turbo C++ until “reaching” Visual C++ in high school. It is more than 10 years since I wrote CalcEm, the first Open Source emulator for Texas Instruments calculators TI-82 and TI-83. It is hopelessly outdated now, but it was a great achievement for me at the time. (I’m actually sitll proud; the last CalcEm version is ranked as 102 on the all-time top downloads list at ticalc.org with 43556 downloads.)
Maybe C++ entered at a sensitive point of my life? When learning Java at the university it only felt crippled when I already knew C++, so I only used Java when I had to and C++ (as in g++) when I got to choose. Sometimes the choice was bad, but it was about learning after all. I remember that our Kalah C++ implementation ruled the competition!
C++ made me feel in control! I never felt as much in control when using Java, and I still don’t. But I’ve learned not to demand so much control.
My friends may have heard me dreaming of working at Tandberg. I don’t languish for ThoughtWorks so much these days. (They do have Martin Fowler, but they also use Lotus Notes. Go figure.)
This is why I never applied for a job at UIQ. I like C++ so much that I cold not stand the horrible subset of C++ that Symbian has inherited from Psion. Instead I got stuck with a stone-age C++ compiler on Tru64. But I got away and now I’m your Java man!
Just let me do a little PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala or Groovy too! And wouldn’t C++ be great for something? 🙂
In my recent trip to Apple’s WWDC I met two Symbian programmers who both roundly cursed the C++ subset and its SDK. Out of the random sample of probably less than a hundred people with whom I had lengthy conversations, I thought that quite telling. I also was amused by the Symbian foundation’s desperate attempt to recruit on the first day – giving away free Nokia 5800 touchphones to any devs willing to come and listen to them explain the foundation for an hour. The lineup of programming languages was Flash Lite, J2ME and Python – no sign of C++!