C++ as a Domain Modelling Language

In Object Thinking David West says that C++ "inhibits the direct expression of application designs in any domain except that of the computer itself". In other words, C++ is great if you need to be intensely aware of the machine, but if you need to model a domain outside the machine -- say, an order entry system -- then C++ inhibits you. He doesn't spell out what's so inhibiting about it, but no doubt he's thinking of the complexity of the language.

When COM was king, Visual C++ was the only Microsoft language that let you really understand how COM worked and fully exploit what COM could do. A lot of us who struggled to program COM in C++ fancied we could design better programs in C++ than in Visual Basic. But did the ability to express COM better bring along the power to express the problem domain better?

I am going to argue on this blog that C++, whether in its traditional unmanaged form or in .NET C++/CLI, is as strong a language for domain modelling as any other, and I'll try and show that it is actually stronger than simpler languages like C# and Java. If that succeeds, then C++ will have a legitimate claim to being the best language (still) for all-purpose programming.

Perhaps I'll not succeed in persuading you, or even myself. But to find out, I (and perhaps you) will need to start attempting to use C++ to accomplish the same sorts of programming tasks that we now do in our "day job" languages (C#, in my case). Now that nothing forces me to use C++, it will take some extra effort to find out if I want to use it.