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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T23:08:10+00:00

I’m a Python programmer who knows a bit of Ruby and PHP as well.

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I’m a Python programmer who knows a bit of Ruby and PHP as well. I don’t really know enough about Java to do anything meaningful, and I certainly don’t know C, C++, or other low-level languages. I’ve heard all the “Who cares about speed because hardware is cheap, but coders are expensive” arguments, and I’m not trying to raise a debate here. I want to understand 2 things about the community of lower level programming languages (whether it’s C or even assembly):

  1. What is the main reason you choose to still use it (job requirements, speed, desktop vs web, etc)?
  2. Is it still worth me taking the time to learn C++ (monetarily speaking) or others this late in the game, or will I benefit?

Also, consider the benefits / disadvantages of dynamic vs static typing, when choosing your reasons. I primarily program for the web, but don’t take that fully into consideration because it’s partly due to the fact that the web is all I know.

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  1. Editorial Team

    For a web programmer, C/C++ will offer you virtually no advantage. It is less expressive than Perl, Ruby, Python, etc. and requires more code and attention to detail of memory management. Unfortunately, choosing a language for its “features” is often second to choosing for its platform. C++ isn’t as clean and elegant as C#, most of that comes from its C compatibility. Sadly, even though there are better languages for certain things, most aren’t compiled and most aren’t widely supported.

    If you plan to develop a commercial product that the customer will download or receive on CD, then C/C++ offers you protection of your Intellectual Property (hard to reverse engineer), and a small runtime footprint, as well as ability to target older platforms like Windows XP.

    It is not too late in the game to learn C/C++. C/C++ will be around as long as all the higher level languages are around, because those languages are implemented in C/C++. It is not as if we will all move to Python one day and C/C++ will be retired. High level, non-compiled languages are not self-hoisting, so they cannot exist without C++.

    It is the tool to use if you are going to implement higher level things like languages, APIs, toolkits, drivers, IDEs, etc. But C++ is not the tool to use if you want the fastest way to develop an internal GUI app or a Web app.

    Just learn the tool for the job. If the job changes, or you wish to change the job, then you may want to push yourself to learn C++ to see the other side of the Computer Science world, the side between the CPU and what you currently write your web apps in.

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