The comparison isn't between straight-C vs. straight C++. It's between C with a good glue language (say, Python or Lua) vs. straight C++.
If I want a linked list in Python, I do:
frobs = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz'].
The equivalent C++ is:
vector<string> frobs;
frobs.push_back("foo");
frobs.push_back("bar");
frobs.push_back("baz");
The reason people like these multi-language solutions is that Python or Lua is
much, much more productive than C++ (as in, many times more productive), and yet the most programs have only a very small core that needs to run fast. You can write that small core in heavily-optimized C, making it quite a bit faster than kludged-together C++, and then write everything else in Python. And the total complexity of the system is
still much less than if you'd just used C++ to start.
If I want a linked list in Python, I do:
The equivalent C++ is: The reason people like these multi-language solutions is that Python or Lua is much, much more productive than C++ (as in, many times more productive), and yet the most programs have only a very small core that needs to run fast. You can write that small core in heavily-optimized C, making it quite a bit faster than kludged-together C++, and then write everything else in Python. And the total complexity of the system is still much less than if you'd just used C++ to start.