[OT] Quick intro to C++ for a Python and C user?

[Paul Rubin]

Grant Edwards <invalid at invalid.invalid> writes:
> Unfortunately, I had to muck about with the original library's code to
> change a couple things from "private" to "protected" to allow me to
> extend the class to do what needed to be done.  Every time I have to
> do anything with C++ (once every handfull of years) it feels like
> swimming against the current...

I think this is what's called "the expression problem" and it's a
perennial sore point in statically typed PL design.  Different languages
have different approaches to dealing with it.  I'm no C++ expert so I
don't know what the gurus would say for your particular situation.  But,
I do get the impression that PL mavens now tend to think that OO and
inheritance was a 1990's thing that didn't work out as well as expected,
that Java is a painful wreck because of it, and that C++ culture has
moved somewhat away from OO in favor of template-based generics.