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Python VS C++

 

Python and C++ are extremely different languages, and most of the differences aren’t strictly advantageous in one direction or the other. That said, for most uses, it’s easy to pick a side and make a good argument for or against particular language and implementation features. 

 

 

Python and C++ when compared with each other can lead to a lot of opinions. Each programmer will have his own opinion and we have tried to compile a few of them to give you a clear perspective. 

 

• Memory management: C++ doesn’t have garbage collection, and encourages use of raw pointers to manage and access memory. It differentiates between heap and stack, and it requires you to attend to values versus references. C++ requires much more attention to bookkeeping and storage details, and while it allows you very fine control, it’s often just not necessary.
• Types: C++ types are explicitly declared, bound to names, checked at compile time, and strict until they’re not. Python’s types are bound to values, checked at run time, and are not so easily subverted. Python’s types are also an order of magnitude simpler. The safety and the simplicity and the lack of declarations help a lot of people move faster. Speaking of…
• Language complexity: C++ is a beast of a language. The spec is 775 pages of language legalese, and even the best C++ developers I’ve known can be caught up short by unintended consequences in complex (or not so complex) code. Python is much simpler, which leads to faster development and less mental overhead.
• Interpreted vs compiled (implementation): C++ is almost always explicitly compiled. Python is not (generally). It’s common practice to develop in the interpreter in Python, which is great for rapid testing and exploration. C++ developers almost never do this, gdb notwithstanding.

 

The Essential Differences

C++ tries to give you every language feature under the sun while at the same time never abstracting anything away that could potentially affect performance. Python tries to give you only one or a few ways to do things, and those ways are designed to be simple, even at the cost of some language power or running efficiency. 

In many cases, Python’s philosophy is an advantage because it lets you get most tasks done more easily and more quickly with less mental overhead. Of course, they also share many similarities: they’re both strongly at home in the OO paradigm; they both have a generally imperative feel with some not-entirely-comfortable functional features; they both have exceptions; they both have minimal, library-based concurrency support. 

 

Specific advantages of Python

• Especially clean, straightforward syntax. This is a major goal of the Python language. Programmers familiar with C and C++ will find the syntax familiar yet much simpler without all the braces and semicolons.
• Duck typing. If an object supports .quack, go ahead and call .quack on it without worrying about that object’s specific type.
• Huge standard library. Just to pick some random examples, Python ships with several XML parsers, csv & zip file readers & writers, libraries for using pretty much every internet protocol and data type, etc.
• Great support for building web apps. Along with Ruby and JavaScript, Python is very popular in the web development community. There are several mature frameworks and a supportive community to get you started.

 

Some advantages of C++ over Python

• runtime performance is better and more predictable
• can be used for systems programming, like an Operating System
• can target just about every known platform including embedded systems
• good way to learn low-level programming

 

The software development companies prefer Python language because of its versatile features and fewer programming codes. Nearly 14% of the programmers use it on the operating systems like UNIX, Linux, Windows and Mac OS. Python is a robust programming language and provides an easy usage of the code lines, maintenance can be handled in a great way, and debugging can be done easily too. It has gained importance across the globe as even computer giant Google has made it one of its official programming languages.