Hacker News Reader

I also used 2018 to learn and get proficient in C++.

Honestly, I don’t really like it. The only real reason for that is that using smart pointers is verbose, but I don’t want to do manual memory management where it’s possible to instead rely on RAII.

Ironically enough, though, C++ is probably the second of two languages I’d consider my “go to.”

View on HN

If you're using smart pointers enough to be bothered by verbosity I think it's somewhat likely you're overusing heap allocation and / or not making enough use of standard containers. Explicitly dealing with heap allocation via smart pointers should be a tool you only reach for occasionally in most code. Heap memory management should usually be wrapped in another library class, either a standard container or a custom type and most non library code should generally be using stack allocation.

You dont go from beginner to proficient in any language in 1 year, much less C++.

Well, I guess "proficient" in relation to someone who had started with the language 1 year ago. There is definitely still a lot left to learn. I don't intend to claim mastery, though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com