Why I personally don’t like to use C++ in business projects

Why I personally don’t like to use C++ in business projects:

I decided to write two  articles, because one day i was asked by one of my clients why i refuse to work on projects where C++ mixed with Java, second reason I want to capture my thought pattern after reading book  Bjarne Stroustrup Programming principles and practice using C++ (1634 Pages book!).

Before you read further, please notice this is my personal subjective opinion, I am Oracle certified Java developer after all, so consider this as last warning. This article consist technical stuff only, read my previous blog about business side.

Now, I will give there some good points about why I prefer to work with Java rather then with C++:

First: C++ has a huge inheritance problem, so called deadly diamond problem:

So we have 3 Classes Father, Mother , Son, Daughter, Son and Daughter both inherit the constructor of Father and Mother , personally I find very nasty the way of class declaration in separate header files, C++ separates declarations (header files) and definitions (in cpp files) (not my taste!) 

Look at this “hell”:

//contents of Daughter.h

#ifndef DAUGHTER_H

#define DAUGHTER_H

#include "Mother.h"

#include "Father.h"

class Daughter : public Father, public Mother

{

    public:

        //destructor

        ~Daughter();

};

#endif

//contents of Daughter.cpp

#include <iostream>

#include <string>

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

#include "Mother.h"

#include "Father.h"

#include "Daughter.h"

Daughter::~Daughter(){

                cout << "goddbye from daughter!!!";

}

//contents of Son.h

#ifndef SON_H

#define SON_H

#include "Mother.h"

#include "Father.h"

class Son: public Father, public Mother

{

    public:

        //destructor

                              ~Son();

};

//contents of Son.cpp

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

#include "Mother.h"

#include "Father.h"

#include "Son.h"

Son::~Son(){

                cout << "Goodbye from son!";

}

//contents of Mother.h 

#ifndef MOTHER_H

#define MOTHER_H

class Mother

{

public:

               Mother();

               //destructor

               ~Mother();

};

//contents of Mother.cpp

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

#include "Mother.h"

Mother::Mother() {         cout << "Hello from Mother!!!";

}

Mother::~Mother(){

               cout << "Goodbye from father!!! ";

};

//contents of Father.h

#ifndef FATHER_H

#define FATHER_H

class Father

{

    public:

                              Father();

                              //destructor

                              ~Father();

};

//contents of Father.cpp

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

#include "Father.h"

Father::Father(){

               cout << "Hello from Father!!!";

}

Father::~Father(){

               cout << "Goodbye from father!!! ";

}

//contents of TESTOOP.cpp

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

#include "Father.h"

#include "Mother.h"

#include "Son.h"

#include "Daughter.h"

int main()

{

               cout << "Call to Father -> ";

    Father fatherObj;

               cout << endl;

               cout << "Call to Mother -> ";

               Mother motherObj;

               cout << endl;

               cout << "Son inhert: ";

               Son sonObj;

               cout << endl;

               cout << "Daughter inhert: ";

               Daughter daughterObj;

               getchar();

               return 0;

}

Second: C++ allows to use pointers (pointer madness) see the following example:
In this example you can read what the code doing , but imagine in the real world where you have thousand or more variables and each of this you can directly access via pointer, this is pure madness to work with such code!!

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

int main()

{

       int number1 = 220;

       int* pointerToNumber;

       int* pointerToAPointer;

       int* pointerToAPointerToAPointer;

      

       pointerToNumber = &number1; //<-- this pointer hold the address of number1

       pointerToAPointer = pointerToNumber; // <-- pointerToAPointer hold the address of pointerToNumber!!!

       pointerToAPointerToAPointer = pointerToAPointer; //// <--pointerToAPointerToAPointer hold the address of pointerToNumber!!!

       cout << "Value of a pointerToNumber "<< *pointerToNumber << " address " << pointerToNumber;

       cout << "\nValue of a pointerToAPointer "<< *pointerToAPointer << " address " << pointerToAPointer ;

       cout << "\nValue of a pointerToAPointerToAPointer " << *pointerToAPointerToAPointer << " address " << pointerToAPointerToAPointer;

      

       getchar();

      

       return 0;

}

Third: C++ provides direct access to memory (random memory corruption!!!) here is example:

Access a memory which has nothing to do with your application, this is just unsafe in modern world where your application must be fast and safe and work in different environments!!!

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

#include<stdio.h>

int main()

{

       int *p=(int *)0x00402000;  // acces to memory!!!!!

    printf("%d",*p);

    printf("%p", p);  // what have we here

       getchar();

      

       return 0;

}

  

Forth: C++ has problem with type checking == weakly typed system here is example

int main()

{

    int a = 125;

    bool problemState;

    problemState = (bool)a;

       cout << "Result "<< problemState;

       getchar();

      

       return 0;

}

In my opinion this very , very bad, because you lose value integrity.

Five: C++ allows memory leaks, this is especially nasty, I saw some projects, people actually did overworked in such cases! Here is simple example:

#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

int main()

{

     // This works!

    int * pointerToInt = new int;

    delete pointerToInt;

    // Memory leak

    int * q = new int;

    // no delete

       getchar();

      

       return 0;

}

Six: C++ have some standardization issues , even  the author of C++ Bjarne Stroustrup have spoken about it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OEu9C51K2A

C++ by nature is very platform dependent (Except if you can do all your work in ANSI C++!!!), so don’t tell me that C++ can be easily ported to any platform, it’s not true (especially if you use libraries from Microsoft Environment but your requirements tell you to port application to Linux )!!!

Where and how to use C++?

I think C++ it’s like a weapon with high damage and precision rate, if you need to take one aim exactly as you imagine then go for it, but if you need general purpose language consider Java a quick and fast way to achieve the goal with safe net of unit tests. Java already provides large number of useful frameworks.

Summary: as you can see C++ is not easy to understand and to master, there are pitfalls which just wait for you to fall in, if you decide to use this language in your business,  then expect big and bumpy ride to your initial goal, but don’t take me wrong, I think C++ is great language but it has very special usage domain and can be very good for solving some special problems. My last advise would be at any time aware what you doing and write lots of unit test, don’t give up to the pressure which some management “give you”, you are responsible for your code and as professional you should care what you writing as final product!