Every language tribe unites around one banner: “C++ is terrible”

Description

Illustration styled like Arthurian ‘Knights of the Round Table’: six armored figures stand in a dimly lit grand hall, shafts of sunlight pouring through tall windows. Each knight’s sword points toward the stone table and carries a white label: “Actual Haters,” “Bjarne Stroustrup (Creator of C++),” “People who wrote C++ for 20 years,” “C++ lovers,” “Ken Thompson,” and “Java, C#, JS, Python, Ruby programmers.” In the table’s center, bold white text reads: “C++ is a terribly written language,” implying unanimous agreement despite wildly different allegiances. The meme riffs on decades-old debates about C++’s sprawling feature set, backward-compat concessions, and compile-time minefields - highlighting that even its inventor and competing language communities often converge on the same critique. Seasoned engineers will appreciate the meta-joke: after twenty years of template metaprogramming and ABI breakage, the only true consensus is collective grumbling

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Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick The real cross-platform miracle of C++ isn’t ‘write once, run anywhere’ - it’s ‘criticize once, every ecosystem compiles the same opinion.’

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

The real cross-platform miracle of C++ isn’t ‘write once, run anywhere’ - it’s ‘criticize once, every ecosystem compiles the same opinion.’
Anonymous

The only thing more impressive than C++'s ability to unite developers across all languages in shared frustration is its template error messages - which, like ancient scrolls, require years of training to decipher and still leave you questioning your life choices at 3 AM
Anonymous

The irony here cuts deeper than template metaprogramming errors: even Ken Thompson - co-creator of Unix and C itself - once famously said he'd 'rather write in C than C++.' When your language's most vocal defenders are the battle-scarred veterans who've spent two decades wrestling with its complexity, and even computing legends question its design, perhaps the real achievement isn't the language itself but the Stockholm syndrome it induces in those who've mastered its arcane depths. Stroustrup stands alone, crown heavy with the weight of undefined behavior, multiple inheritance, and the eternal question: 'But does it need to be *this* complicated?'
Anonymous

Bjarne reigns supreme, but after 20 years dodging UB and SFINAE, even loyal knights plot a Rust coup
Anonymous

Only C++ can unite haters and lifers: RAII, templates, and ABI “stability” all claim zero cost - until -O3, UB, and the linker form a quorum
Anonymous

C++: where ADL, SFINAE, and UB form a quorum so compelling that even Stroustrup’s sword points at the same verdict - longer than the compile times
@jiriido 2y

Why is it so?
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  C++ is way too complex and consists of hacks upon hacks upon hacks, on top of a >50yo language
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  Is complexity really a problem? I think c++ is beautiful of the reason it's logically understandable for me. If I coded in python I wouldn't know how to code simple array sorting function of the reason this function can be used as built-in method
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  Even if python programmer can code something, he will be code slowly, of the reason coder didn't get enough practice because python is full of methods that you can just use not understanding them
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  python doesn't have that many methods compared to C++ there's usually only one way to do something, as opposed to C++
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  really, one way, have you ever seen those massive tables with huge amounts of names of methods in python? And they're all built-in!
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  complexity becomes a burden once you get to a level where you constantly have to look up what even stdlib functions do. C++ has long long passed the point where it's impossible to know everything, and it feels like it's still accelerating
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  and... Nobody said that you have to know everything about language, you just need to understand how it works to do it by yourself
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  it helps a lot. The less I need to look up when reading code, the less methods I can misunderstand, and the faster I can start working on it
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  So it's easier for you to remember some names for you instead of writing your own methods/functions that you can change how you want to and understand how they work?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  yes. literally just yes
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  So that's the difference between us, for me python is also complex so don't write that only c++ is bad of the reason it's complex
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  python is way less complex than C++ C++ literally has a way bigger stdlib, with lots of duplicated features
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  So don't use them, the thing is that c++ faster, so you can write your own methods and functions easily
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  "So don't use them" exactly, I use C instead. Or python, depending on what I need
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  So you just answered. they are different, c++ is used in many applications of the reason it's fast, python can be used for LM, for example
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  you mean ML
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  Learning Models?
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  I didn't mean Machine Learning
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  isn't that kinda the same?
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  Machine learning Models are things those are created in Machine Learning
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  the field is called ML, what creates the models is training
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  obviously python and C++ are different, I just said C++ is way too complex
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  Do you know about headers. Not to get lost in your code you can use them
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  headers are definitely useful, but those exist in C as well, and can be substituted with some IDE features
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Complexity is a problem because it becomes so damn difficult to reason about
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  The moment you say this, this, and that is UB, you have to pay attention to stuff, and you've got lots of stuff to pay attention to
@jiriido 2y

don't know. I used them making some code and they are useful. Like a lot
@callofvoid0 2y

my reasons for saying cpp is both amazing and terrible are it is great 'cause it gives high level options in low level it is damn complex because of library names and dependencies you wanna write a single program? you need a simple function you should know which header it is in if you don't know implement it yourself and fuck you
1. @callofvoid0 2y
  
  same goes with c
2. @jiriido 2y
  
  the only thing that makes me angry about c++ is that my functions and methods work slower than methods from certain library
  
  @jiriido 2y
  
  probably that's I'm stupid
@jiriido 2y

like game of life with c++ in window with windows.h API
@RiedleroD 2y

I like headers, and I've written some C too.
@callofvoid0 2y

I still have the problem with function names which header they are in and what they do
@declonter 2y

Is there the reference implementation for C++? 😉
@ahmubashshir 2y

yeah... C is assembly for the C abstract state machine... except a few niche platforms... where c is almost equal to assembly* p.s. on those platform... c looks more like assembly/gibberish if you don't know about the platform... you'll see everyone shoving bits in mystery global variables or reading from them
1. @callofvoid0 2y
  
  Arduino e.g. right?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  iirc Arduino uses C++
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  I should know this because I've done a fair bit of Arduino development a few years ago, but yet… not sure
  
  @callofvoid0 2y
  
  probably yes but anyways it's about setting and reading serials and bits
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  yes, there's lots of mysterious weird variables in Arduino development. I do remember that much
  
  @ahmubashshir 2y
  
  arduino is clean and dumb enough
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  could be better, could be worse
  
  @ahmubashshir 2y
  
  nah...
@IvanVodkavich 2y

Sumbed down, superfluous, but still compiled with gcc. Noone stops you from doing things the usual, io.h way. Also, inline assembly. Marlin, firmware for arduino based motion control board provides examples of all 3

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Every language tribe unites around one banner: “C++ is terrible”

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