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Hello Masters,
Greetings!
For how long will c++ last?
Just a curious question, if the language will last 30 to 50 years.
Regards,
jbohol
Greetings!
For how long will c++ last?
Just a curious question, if the language will last 30 to 50 years.
Regards,
jbohol
Look at it from this perspective. How old are Cobol, Basic, Pascal, Algol? They may not be developed any further, there may be no new standards, additions made, etc. But most of those 'ancient languages', they are still in use today. Some are around at least 50 years. As long as people undertake to learn a language, and it is in active use, it will 'last'.
For specific number of years, ask your Crystal-Ball. ;-)
For specific number of years, ask your Crystal-Ball. ;-)
There are certain mainstream programming domains where C++ stands alone, without any real competition.
As long as tightly resource-constrained programming, programming at high levels of abstraction with near-zero loss of efficiency, or building highly scalable and extensible large software infrastructure continue to be relevant, C++ would continue to remain relevant.
As long as tightly resource-constrained programming, programming at high levels of abstraction with near-zero loss of efficiency, or building highly scalable and extensible large software infrastructure continue to be relevant, C++ would continue to remain relevant.
| Will it last 30 years more? |
No. In fact, C++ will last another 13 years. In October 2031, all C++ code will stop working, and all C++ compilers will stop working. From that point onwards, it will no longer be possible to create software using C++.
Please don't ask me how I know this. I won't put my sources in danger.
Signed 32 bit time_t. Maybe it's the entire Western Civilization that'll end.
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It will easily last 25 more.
While you need a working crystal ball to really answer, we are not living in a vacuum either.
If tomorrow, the best language ever came out, maybe something like that old google april fool's joke where you could type in a short description of the program and the AI would build the program for you with no work done...
--it would still take a solid decade for many big corporations to fully trust the new tech and use it everywhere
-- the new tech may not work on small computers (smaller than your cell phone) with limited cpu and memory
-- the new tech may not be capable of real time performance
-- it will take 20 years to be adopted by airline and hospital and similar industry where there are extreme hoops to jump through before code can be deployed to systems that could kill someone if they malfunctioned
-- it would take 20 years or more to rewrite everything that exists to the new platform... like operating systems, commercial calculators (matlab/matrix/calculus/CFD/ etc stuff), games/graphics, and a never-ending list of software... about half (probably more) of everything that exists is either written in C, C++, or the compiler for it was, or it contains libraries that were, or something.
--price of the new tools to make the effort spent on it profitable
--adoption by 2nd and 3rd world programmers given said expenses...
--etc
For the same reason, if intel let loose a quantum computer tomorrow morning, our old machines would probably continue to grind away for years. My last PC was over 5 years old, and we still have machines where I work that are nearly as old as I am (mainframes from the early 80s). You walk into some stores and you still see greenscreen/2 color display monitors once in a while... I am getting old at an alarming rate and never even owned one of those!
And even if all that stuff did happen, the google magic compiler... would probably be written in, at least partially, c++ and if it had any sense, it would generate C++ code :P
While you need a working crystal ball to really answer, we are not living in a vacuum either.
If tomorrow, the best language ever came out, maybe something like that old google april fool's joke where you could type in a short description of the program and the AI would build the program for you with no work done...
--it would still take a solid decade for many big corporations to fully trust the new tech and use it everywhere
-- the new tech may not work on small computers (smaller than your cell phone) with limited cpu and memory
-- the new tech may not be capable of real time performance
-- it will take 20 years to be adopted by airline and hospital and similar industry where there are extreme hoops to jump through before code can be deployed to systems that could kill someone if they malfunctioned
-- it would take 20 years or more to rewrite everything that exists to the new platform... like operating systems, commercial calculators (matlab/matrix/calculus/CFD/ etc stuff), games/graphics, and a never-ending list of software... about half (probably more) of everything that exists is either written in C, C++, or the compiler for it was, or it contains libraries that were, or something.
--price of the new tools to make the effort spent on it profitable
--adoption by 2nd and 3rd world programmers given said expenses...
--etc
For the same reason, if intel let loose a quantum computer tomorrow morning, our old machines would probably continue to grind away for years. My last PC was over 5 years old, and we still have machines where I work that are nearly as old as I am (mainframes from the early 80s). You walk into some stores and you still see greenscreen/2 color display monitors once in a while... I am getting old at an alarming rate and never even owned one of those!
And even if all that stuff did happen, the google magic compiler... would probably be written in, at least partially, c++ and if it had any sense, it would generate C++ code :P
Last edited on
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