Python vs. C++ Builder - speed of development

[Brandon Van Every]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> Brandon Van Every wrote:
>    ...
>> really do feel that most of my time right now is spent on design,
>> and that no
>> language would allow me to code any more rapidly than any other.
>> C++ just
>
> Python has the potential to make your design more productive, too.
> Whenever you have to choose between (algorithms, data structures,
> or more generally "approaches") A, B and C, Python makes it quite
> feasible to code them all and then choose between them on the basis
> of actual experience, rather than mere theories.

There's nothing remotely theoretical about my current C++ development.

>> If you Keep It Simple Stupid in C++, it ain't that bad.
>
> But you can't keep C++ all that "simple", really.

Yes you can, when you're solo coding.

> You cannot "simply not use" ``worry about who owns what'' in C++.
> SOME object X has to hold THE owning-pointer (e.g. auto_ptr) to
> another object Y, while other pointers to Y don't "own" it -- you
> have to KNOW when Y gets freed; or else you get to reimplement
> reference counting and/or other approaches to garbage collection,
> infrastructure which Python gives you in a much better developed
> and usable state.

I haven't written anything in my entire code base that uses reference
counting at all.  I do not live in a "I must spawn this zillions of times!"
world.  Not yet, at any rate.  I may need it later, but by then I will have
"poured a strong foundation."

> Of course you don't use nested functions in C++ -- it does not
> support them.  That's a _handicap_ of C++, by the way.

I've yet to design anything that needed nested functions.

> If you don't use templates in C++, that's your loss -- they're

It is not a loss when your overriding goal is to get 1 code path working
well.  I do not believe in a bazillion code paths, you can't optimize them
all.  I have a RISC mentality.  So first you get the 1 code path working
well, you do everything that you possibly can with it, and only much much
much later after the design is proven do you worry about templates.

I also don't believe in trying to solve everybody's problems in some
general-purpose way up front.  Solve the specific problem you're working on.
Don't start out writing templates, it's a bad impulse.  Make a template out
of something with proven utility, that you need to extend to a more general
case.  Templates should be code *reuse*, not code anticipation.

> And I do *NOT* believe you
> do not use any casts in your C++ code, _particularly_ if you
> make no use of templates.

At the stage of development I'm at, it's a true statement.  Well, I cast
some ints to floats to do various calculations, but I'm sure that's not what
you meant.  Really, there's nothing that needs any shoehorning in my current
design.

--
Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.