69 karma · joined March 24, 2016
The state of the art in web is React which is an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Win32's UI loop.
Also, OP, what materials would you recommend for a machine learning newbie?
The STL has its uses…when you're writing a high level program, for example, that queries a database or when you need to pivot matrices for rendering some graphics. But if you're writing a string manipulating function that's presumably going to be called tons of times, it makes no sense to draw in big monsters like the STL. It's like bringing a jackhammer to nail a picture on drywall.
As for manual memory management, this is C++, not Python. If you're willing to use smart pointers, then you shouldn't even be using C++ because that sacrifices determinism and performance just as much or more than GC. If I wanted that kind of software, I would just use a much quicker-to-write language like Java/Go/CL.
IMO a better option for Google, when considering to close an API, is to enforce payment and hike the price enough to justify maintaining it. If and only if enough users drop out with the higher price, then shut it down for good.