I've said it (or some variant of it) before: domain knowledge is tremendously valuable. If I have full access to my toolbox of personal libraries, I can be extremely productive in C++. If I don't, or if my new employer bans Boost, or STL, or importation of libraries (all very common C++ problems), then I suddenly feel like a junior programmer again, plodding along.
I agree that language exposure broadens your horizons. Even old PHP changed my approach to some degree, and right now I'm working on learning functional languages. That doesn't change the fact that I'm dramatically more productive on my primary platform.
Yep. Yet until fairly recently, many people were still distrustful of STL due to the various implementations and the godawful compiler errors. As for Boost, at my last company, I had to stage a long battle in order to get even a minimal portion of Boost into our product.
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I've said it (or some variant of it) before: domain knowledge is tremendously valuable. If I have full access to my toolbox of personal libraries, I can be extremely productive in C++. If I don't, or if my new employer bans Boost, or STL, or importation of libraries (all very common C++ problems), then I suddenly feel like a junior programmer again, plodding along.
I agree that language exposure broadens your horizons. Even old PHP changed my approach to some degree, and right now I'm working on learning functional languages. That doesn't change the fact that I'm dramatically more productive on my primary platform.
If you can't use Boost and STL, you're C++'ing in the stone age.
Yep. Yet until fairly recently, many people were still distrustful of STL due to the various implementations and the godawful compiler errors. As for Boost, at my last company, I had to stage a long battle in order to get even a minimal portion of Boost into our product.