> anyone who doesn't already know C++ should avoid the investment of learning it

ACK. I know many languages, and my advice after using C++ for several years is: Don't dare try to do everything in C++. Use C++ only when it is absolutely necessary.

Just compare this C++ code

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/program.php?test=regex...

with this equivalent Javascript code to understand immediately what I mean:

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=reg...

It's funny that this V8 code runs even 4.5 times faster (!) than C++ :)

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/performance.php?test=r...