In terms of performance, C++ done right should be just as fast as C. That aside, I'm starting to learn it myself because it offers some of the things that have been spoiling me in Python but with the speed of one of the fastest compiled languages. For example:
Code:
#include <iostream>
#include <unordered_map>
#include <string>
int main(void)
{
std::unordered_map<std::string, int> adictionary;
adictionary["some key"] = 3;
adictionary["another key"] = 6;
std::cout << adictionary["some key"];
return 0;
}
I'm not really interested in the nitty gritty of the language and its myriad of complicated features, I'm more interested in its large standard library as recently upgraded by C++11. The standard library includes all kinds of data structures out of the box which makes it ideal IMO.