Python and C++

Python vs C++

Despite being backed by Google, loved by AI researchers, and taught in every coding boot camp, Python will never replace C++. This is not just about code. It’s about survival. And a quiet war raging right beneath your IDE because Python is a lie, a beautiful, elegant lie that can never escape the shadow of C++. Don’t rely on Python for everything.

The Birth of Two Giants: Python & C

The year is 1991. The internet barely exists and Windows 3.0 was the cuttingedge technology. Most people have never even sent an email. So during that era of time, two important programming languages were born. Python and C++. C++ was made by Bja Strastrip as a more powerful version of C. It was made for serious system work and raw computing power. Developers had to understand computers at a really deep level to use it. Memory management, pointers, compilation, it was like building a car engine from scratch, piece by tiny piece. Meanwhile, Python was created by Guido Van Rossom as a revolution wrapped around simplicity.

Python’s Rise to Power

The code was so clean that even a child could read it, which made programming available to beginners. Think about this. To read a file in C++ you need to understand things like streams buffers, exception handling, and memory. But in Python, just one line of code and you’re done. For a moment, programming didn’t feel scary anymore. Even big companies like Google started using Python. NASA implemented it for scientific computing. Wall Street began using it for financial analysis. Python was just taking over the world. Programming was becoming available to everyone and the future was looking so bright for Python.

The Hidden Flaws That Haunt Python

But then reality came crashing down like a ton of bricks. Because as Python got more popular, it ran into fundamental problems that couldn’t be fixed. Problems that were built into its DNA from the very beginning. When Python executes code, it runs hundreds of times slower than C++. This isn’t a small gap that optimization can fix. Think about it. In a world where milliseconds matter, Python was asking users to wait seconds or even minutes longer to run complex operations. This became a deal breakaker for entire tech industries. And that was just the beginning. Because memory use became another big trouble. Python’s ease of use came with a cost, as everything in Python uses more memory. So a simple number in C++ might use four bytes of memory and that same number in Python was 28 bytes. That’s 7 times more memory for exact same value.

Why Python Can’t Compete With C

But wait it gets even worse. Because then, we have the problem of threading. Python has something called the global interpreter lock that stops Python from using multiple processor cores effectively. In an era of multi-core computers, Python couldn’t fully use the hardware it was running on. Meanwhile C++ could harness every bit of processing power available. As Python tried to expand its empire into performance critical domains, it kept hitting walls. Because no matter how hard developers tried, certain domains remained out of reach for Python. Game development, C++ territory. Operating systems, C++ was the king. Those super fast Python libraries everyone uses are just Python wrappers around C++ code. Because Python’s most impressive achievements weren’t even written in Python. They were C++ engines with Python interfaces.

The Shocking Truth Behind Python’s Success

But here’s where the story gets really interesting. By 2010, Python was getting super popular with beginners and data scientists. But behind the scenes, Python is just a guest in a house that C++ built, running only because C++ allows it to. And that is also a tough reality that many Python programmers prefer to ignore. Think about Python’s relationship with computer hardware. There isn’t one. Because Python can’t directly talk to computer hardware. Meanwhile, C++ can control individual bits of memory directly, access hardware components, and communicate with the machine itself. But what if Python had been designed differently from the start? What if Guido Van Rossum had made speed more important than simplicity? Then the sad truth is, it wouldn’t be Python anymore, because, Python can’t become C++. Without stopping being Python its greatest strengths - simplicity, readability, and friendliness, are the very things that makes it weak in performance.

Python & C++: Enemies or Allies?

Guido Van Rossom himself warned us that Python was never meant to replace C++. It was never trying to be faster. In fact, it was meant to work alongside C++. So, look at it this way. Python and C++ are not enemies. And the real winner isn’t Python or C++. It’s us, the programmers, who now have the power and right tools for every problem.