Python Productivity over C++

[Mike Steed]

> From: nbecker at fred.net [mailto:nbecker at fred.net]
> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 9:38 AM
> To: python-list at python.org
> Subject: Re: Python Productivity over C++
> 
> 
> >>>>> "Bill" == Bill McClain <wmcclain at salamander.com> writes:
> 
>     Bill> What frustrates me about C++ is the enormous declarative
overhead required
>     Bill> to get anything done. Every class requires me to instruct the
compiler on
>     Bill> how to copy, assign, compare and reference objects, and how
subclasses
>     Bill> are allowed to inherit from the parent. STL works well for data
structures,
>     Bill> but the advanced features are very cumbersome.
> 
>     Bill> Much of this burden simply vanishes with Python.
> 
> I rarely need to do this for my classes.  Using STL heavily is a big
> help.

This is a surprising thing to say.  STL requires that the types used to
instantiate its various templates be well-behaved in certain ways, e.g., for
copying, assigning, and comparing (depending on the "concept" to which the
template conforms).  This means you have to implement your own copy
constructor, assignment operator, and/or comparison operators for each
(non-trivial) class.  It may not be difficult, but it is overhead that
Python does not impose.

--
M.