C++ is a general-purpose programming language created as an extension to the C programming language. It incorporates multiple built-in arithmetic and logical functions and many built-in libraries that make development faster and convenient. Also, the C++ programming language is designed to be an object-oriented programming language. There are many senior programmers out there who still work C++ programming language. You might be amazed to know that according to TIOBE (Programming Community Index), the C++ programming language ranks on 4. According to PyPL (PopularitY of Programming Language), C++ rank on 5th position.
But with popular programming languages like Python and JavaScript out there, one might think, is C++ worth learning? Well, don’t worry, this is the question I am going to answer in this article. So, let’s get started.
Why should you learn C++?
C++ is a fantastic programming language, and it solves a lot of specific needs. This programming language has been around for almost 40 years, which means that almost all the software problems have already been solved by its open-source libraries and frameworks. Now some of the highlights about C++ is that it was created to be incredibly fast, but it is also dependent on how fast the processor runs. One of the other highlights is that C++ is a compiled language that allows it to be executed efficiently. This is because a compiled language has a very direct execution process that is completely opposite to an interpreted language. C++ translates from one source to machine code, whereas an interpreted language like JavaScript or Python is translated as the source interpreter processes the source.
C++ offers abstraction mechanisms that allow sophisticated industrial-strength algorithms to be packaged in libraries that add very little overhead to straight code expansion. There are thousands of these libraries that have been published over the years, and applications can usually quickly deploy these tuned algorithms to achieve desired effects with near-optimal machine efficiency. So, these are just a few factors that come into play that make C++ incredibly fast.
The speed of C++ also makes it a fantastic choice for embedded systems like NASA, robotics, and even top-rated large-scale games like you have got, such as Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Doom, to name a few. And if you think about it, these games need to squeeze out every piece of performance and make these blazing fast calculations and recalculations on the fly, which C++ makes it happen.
Why should you not learn C++?
On the flip side, C++ is a very strict, very robust, and very complex language. And this makes C++ incredibly difficult to learn, even for seasoned developers. If you do a Google search for the “hardest programming language”, you will quickly see that C++ is listed as a top contender.
On top of that, C++ is not the right choice for many projects and applications. If you are considering C++ to build web APIs, desktop apps, iPhone apps, and such, C++ should not be your option unless you plan on your applications getting hundreds of thousands of hits per second. Most applications don’t need these performance gains. Although, in the above section, I also talked about that C++ is an excellent choice for embedded systems, another aspect for embedded development is the increase in processor performance, the amount of memory available, and standardization on 32 and 64-bit platforms. And this allows languages like Java, Lua, and Python to be used in deeply embedded systems, and these are languages that are easier to use.
Even video game systems are getting so fast that these large-scale games are now using Unity or C#. So, people are choosing these languages because they offer the same cross-platform compatibility as C++, but they are much easier to work with. Also, if I go to the Indeed job portal and try to find out jobs related to C++, I can see 53,285 jobs getting listed.
But when I search Python, there are 121,372 jobs listed, which is almost 2.5X times of C++ listings. Even if you search Java or JavaScript, the listings will be close to double of C++.
Is C++ worth learning?
Most people don’t need to learn C++ unless there is a specific industry that they want to get into. So, if you want to build embedded systems, robotics or want to develop a career in finance and algorithmic trading, C++ makes sense. But there are many different software and technologies and jobs that have absolutely no need for C++. So, things like ios apps, android apps, desktop apps, back-end APIs, machine learning, data science, and many other do not require C++ knowledge. Could you use C++ to build machine learning models and back-end APIs? Yes! But, would there be any advantage? Probably not, because C++ would take way more time and money. If you choose to use it, let me give you some insight into the job market. I mentioned that C++ is very difficult to learn, and because of this reason, most companies are looking for senior C++ developers. If you are looking for an entry-level job, it will be much easier getting one using Python or JavaScript versus C++.
C++ is still widely used because when it comes to writing high-performance software that does not require a huge footprint to get great power out of it, then C++ is one of the kings. The problem with C++ is that power comes with a significant cost and that cost is your run time speed, the speed at which it runs. The cost of that speed is not justifiable with the lack of speed of writing your C++ code. So essentially, to get something out in C++, it is going to take much more work than to get something out in other languages higher level languages like Java, Python, C#, PHP, etc.
All in all, if developing high-performance applications such as browsers or game engines interests you, C++ will be the best choice for you. If not, perhaps you need to look into an alternative.
Final Thoughts
I hope I was able to give enough information which will help you decide whether learning C++ is worth it for you or not. C++ is among the top programming languages, so be assured that this programming language will not vanish from the tech industry. But you should learn C++ only if it is required in your job role or in the domain where it is widely used.
