leceta wrote:
As kzaremba noted, Rhino despite being written in C++ has developed .net alternatives for the "develousers", probably because "
That's a misquote of something said by the designer of C++, Bjarne Stroustrup, way back in 1986. His actual statement was:
C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off
Because this quote has been widely misquoted and/or misunderstood, Stroustrup has a more detailed explanation on his
FAQ page:
Yes, I said something like that (in 1986 or so). What people tend to miss, is that what I said there about C++ is to a varying extent true for all powerful languages. As you protect people from simple dangers, they get themselves into new and less obvious problems. Someone who avoids the simple problems may simply be heading for a not-so-simple one. One problem with very supporting and protective environments is that the hard problems may be discovered too late or be too hard to remedy once discovered. Also, a rare problem is harder to find than a frequent one because you don't suspect it.
You can dig yourself into a very deep pit with
any
language. What many seem to miss is that different programming languages exist for a reason – there is no such thing as a universally applicable language.
It would be great to have Python in ARCHICAD because there is a need for light-weight, easily accessible scripting in that context. It would be good to see it replace GDL in objects too. But there is equally a place for C++, which is by far the most popular language for application, games, 3D and systems development. Architectural design and modelling places very heavy demands on machine resources and presents very complex programming problems. This is exactly why languages like C++ exist.
But also keep in mind that there is no need to explore the full depth or complexity that C++ offers (if that's possible). It is as easy to write readable functional code in C++ as most other software languages, and more so as the language evolves. C++17 is a world away from its origins. You get in trouble when you try to implement complex solutions for simple problems, and C++ can give you that in spades (if you look for it).
Regarding the API, ARCHICAD has a much longer history than others (back to 1982). Some of the harder parts of the API find their roots in that era. C++ is well suited to bridging that gap, but is also capable of gradually migrating it forward into something much simpler and cleaner. I find that most who complain about "no proper API" etc simply mean, "this isn't the familiar Microsoft .NET development environment I've always worked in". But that's an essential reality for many programmers – you need different tools for different jobs. Trying to shoe-horn them all into one tool isn't going to go well.
Ralph Wessel BArch
Central Innovation
. It's probably what every big player used to do... Appel, Goole or is still doing 
