C++, Ruby, CoffeeScript Comparison

9/24/2014 C++, Ruby, CoffeeScript: a visual comparison of language complexity | C++ Rocks
http://cpprocks.com/cpp-ruby-coffeescript-language-complexity/#!prettyPhoto[gallery-C++: 189 concepts, twice more than in Ruby & 3 times more tha 1/11
C++, Ruby, CoffeeScript: a visual comparison of language
complexity
Most people will agree that C++ is a fairly complex language. But just how complex is it? I got curious
about quantifying that by comparing the number of concepts a programmer has to understand to learn a
programming language in its entirety.
Concepts in my definition include large categories like classes and operators, as well as more fine grained
things like if-else statements and while loops. There is a lot of variation in the complexity of different
concepts, so their number can only serve as a rough measure of language complexity. Nevertheless, I think
its interesting.
I chose C++, CoffeeScript and Ruby for my comparison. CoffeeScript and Ruby are dynamically typed so
they are significantly different from C++. However, all three are multi-paradigm general purpose
languages, supporting (to a reasonable degree at least) object oriented, functional, procedural and generic
programming. So this post is about C++ vs. dynamically typed languages.
I think it would also be interesting to make a comparison with other statically typed languages such as F#
or Scala but Im not really familiar with them, so it would be hard for me to do.
CoffeeScript
First up, lets look at CoffeeScript:

June 7, 2012 Tags: C++, C++11, CoffeeScript, Ruby
Category: Uncategorized 35 Comments
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It has a total of 68 concepts divided into 8 major groups.
Note that I listed metaprogramming as one concept because its largely based on the concept of executable
class bodies.
Ruby
Ruby is clearly more complicated, with 96 concepts in 11 major groups. Its got a more sophisticated class
model than CoffeeScript, as well as things like constants, blocks and operator overloading.
C++
Finally, here is C++:
C++: 189 concepts, twice more than in Ruby & 3 times more than CoffeeScript
There are 189 concepts in 18 groups on this diagram, double the number of Ruby concepts and almost 3
times more than in CoffeeScript!
I believe that some of the concepts in C++ (such as name resolution) are also comparatively more complex,
with a lot of nuanced rules. The concept of names in C++ is more involved than in the other languages
because there are many different categories. In dynamic languages, more or less everything is either a
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constant or a variable (including class names and function names).
I omitted the concepts of compilation and linking because the other two languages dont have them.
From the diagram we can see that there are many reasons for the complexity. Part of it is the static type
system, another part is templates, yet another part is the name system, as well as the complex class model.
The underlying drivers are of course performance and type safety.
Whats not in the diagrams?
I didnt include a lot of other things that a programmer is required to know in order to use a language in
practice:
standard libraries
language idioms and best practices
concurrency concepts
design patterns
These things become more prominent when a programmer progresses from learning to mastering a
language.
I think that C++ would win the prize for complexity in such a comparison too. For example, there are books
like C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices (there are in fact 101 rules in there),
and Effective C++ containing 55 pieces of advice. These books dont deal with esoteric situations, they are
aimed at normal everyday code. Thats a lot of extra knowledge!
While other languages have their best practices and idioms too, I think their number is quite a lot smaller.
So whats the point?
My goal isnt to complain about how huge and incomprehensible C++ is. I believe there is no alternative to
C++ for large projects with strict hardware constraints or performance requirements when you take the
availability of modern tools, libraries and developers into account.
However, I do think that its important to highlight what programming in C++ entails because it has
implications for how its taught and when it should be chosen for a project.
It isnt a language that can be picked up quickly. It takes a long time to learn and even longer to master.
Because of this, I think there is a lot of value in learning C++ from the top down.
With C++11, it has become easier to start with the modern high level subset of C++ (and the standard
libraries), and then gradually add on the intricacies and the low level features. In other words,
std::shared_ptr comes before raw pointers, lambdas come before functors, and std::array comes before C
style arrays.
When choosing C++ for a new project, its a good idea to consider the level of experience of the developers
or the time available for learning if C++ is new to them.
I think that its also good to keep in mind that the complexity of C++ results in a significant disparity in the
WenFu Zhoudong June 8, 2012 at 4:54 pm
level of language knowledge between developers, which has to be taken into account in interviews and in
providing training. Significant knowledge disparity within a team isnt pleasant for people on either end of
the spectrum.
Finally, here are the diagrams side by side for a quick visual comparison:
Keen on mastering C++11/14? Ive written a book about the C++11/14 features. You can get a
VS2013, Clang or a GCC edition.
35 Responses to C++, Ruby, CoffeeScript: a visual comparison of language complexity
You did not speak the most important language in use today Visual Basic. It is a much more power
soft than other softs you talked of.

Youve got to be kidding.

Alex Korban June 8, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Tinco June 9, 2012 at 2:05 am
Arth June 9, 2012 at 12:22 am
Bob Dole June 8, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Alex Korban June 9, 2012 at 12:08 am
bebna June 8, 2012 at 8:47 pm

Eh, in 2001..

Funny, when did Visual Basic became a powerful language?

Concepts arent in C++11.

Yep, I know. I was using concepts in a traditional non-programming sense.

Nice idea!
Can you please make two other charts: python and C11? So we can also compare ruby python and
C11C++11
Thank you!

Im not that familiar with Python but I think it will be quite similar to Ruby. What do you
mean by C11? My chart is for C++11 since thats the current version of the language.

seanairt June 12, 2012 at 7:53 am
fortran June 22, 2012 at 3:05 am
Robert Paulson June 8, 2012 at 8:49 pm
The C programming language got a year 2011 update just as C++ did. It just wasnt
covered as much in the tech media.
Wikipedia reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C11_(C_standard_revision)
ISO link: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?
csnumber=57853
Personally, Id like to see these compared to a chart against Scheme. I was probably
missing a few things, but my quick mental exercise had 3 groups and only a dozen or so
concepts.

Oh I see. I dont think a comparison with C would make much sense because it
doesnt allow object oriented or generic programming.
Scheme would be interesting to see but I wonder if it allows all 4 paradigms (or
how well they can be emulated).

Python is much simpler than Ruby, you should take a look at it.

I do not understand why the preprocessor is a C++ concept ? You can use g++ preprocessor for a
Ruby file !

Umm.. because, like, every C++ program IN THE WORLD uses the preprocessor and every
ruby program IN THE WORLD doesnt. I saw two bears ballroom dancing once, but ballroom
dancing is a HUMAN thing. Its not a BEAR thing, you got it? Its not something youre going
to see in a David Attenborough documentary on bear behaviour. No ballroom dancing in
nature documentaries. So NOW do you understand why the preprocessor is a C++ concept,
Dardie June 8, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Thomaz June 8, 2012 at 11:48 pm
rwols June 8, 2012 at 11:44 pm
even though you CAN use g++ preprocessor for a Ruby file. Holy shit people.

Your comment made my day. Thank you.

I enjoyed your explanation, it beat the hell out of car analogies :)

I disagree with your last advice about teaching C++, i.e. going from the top down starting with
std::vectors and std::arrays and using shared_ptr instead of raw pointers.
It might be a long hard climbup a tall mountain when you start from the bottom, but the sight is
beautiful once you reach the top really.
A student will miss the feeling of gratitude when he/she does NOT first create his/her own
implementation of a (doubly) linked list first and then in a next assignment may use an std::list or
std::vector.
Raw pointers are nothing scary when working with a small programming assignment. Sure, there
might pop up questions in bigger projects of exactly which class or who should delete that newd
memory, but thats more of a general design and political question rather than a true programming
question.

rwols, your comment was quite poetic and reflects a common viewpoint, but I guess well just
have to agree to disagree.
Everybody is inevitably heading in one direction though, and that is increasing the level of
abstraction. Starting with low level stuff gives people the wrong impression of how C++
should be written, unnecessarily.

Tom Siegl June 9, 2012 at 12:16 am
Brusselsblogger June 9, 2012 at 12:41 am
j0x June 9, 2012 at 12:53 am
SFINAE concept is missing in C++.

Yes, it probably should have been in there.

Would someone be able to make a comparison with PHP?

can i request a comparison for googles Go Programming Language? so that i can know what to
learn, i wanna learn a simple language that can do more, and since i heard that Go programming is
an alternative for C++ said by google developers on an interview at channel9

From my point of view dynamic casting is also concept. For instance Javascript (CoffeeScript) is very
complex in it, e.g. Boolean(expr) is false for all of: undefined, null, false, 0, -0, NaN. And ==
operator works:
0 == \r\n
0 == false
001 == true
2 != true
2 != false
true != true
true != false
0 == []
0 == [0]
0 != {}
2 == [2]
false == []
true != {}
false != {}
http://cpprocks.com/cpp-ruby-coffeescript-language-complexity/#!prettyPhoto[gallery-C++: 189 concepts, twice more than in Ruby & 3 times more th 10/11
Lukas Svoboda June 9, 2012 at 1:01 am
iveney June 9, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Dmitry Wolf June 9, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Rich Morin June 11, 2012 at 3:28 am
Alex June 12, 2012 at 5:16 am
MikeUnix June 13, 2012 at 8:29 am
This strangeness is not unfortunately reflected. It would be nice to extend it.

Well I am interested to see the graph for P and Brainf**k

Anyone who interested in making similar maps for other languages welcome here
https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0ByqCRdN_ceY4dkNMRjNGTjUxUDg/edit

Given Rich Hickeys take on complexity, an analysis of Clojure would be interesting.

i think Lua is even more simple than CoffeeScript.

Very interesting article! Why not to include containers libraries in the concepts (like standard library
or boost)? They are so widely used!

Thanks Mike. I specifically didnt include any libraries because I was interested in comparing
languages in this instance, and libraries would complicate things.

I wanted to learn a new programming language today and I want to thank you-
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Fred April 24, 2013 at 8:35 pm
I had hear of Coffescript before and was pleasantly surprised to see that it lightweight and only has a
few concepts to learn.
Cool!

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