Someone just emailed me asking me this question -- I replied as follows, but it would be great to hear what other community members think -- Max
-------------- My response follows ------------
This is a very tricky question because there are lots of different ways of looking at it. C can generate the smallest, fastest programs, but it also allows you to do horrible things. The object oriented aspects of C++ are very powerful, but it takes a lot to "wrap your brain" around it. Python is the easiest to learn, the fastest to write programs in, and the most intuitive -- but the resulting applications will not run as fast as their C equivalents (this may not be a problem depending on what you are trying to do).
In the case of embedded development systems -- there's more support for C/C++ than Python -- but this may or may not be a problem. Take a look at the following column I wrote a while back and see if it helps answer your questions: Python is better than C! (Or is it the other way round?)
-------------- My response follows ------------
This is a very tricky question because there are lots of different ways of looking at it. C can generate the smallest, fastest programs, but it also allows you to do horrible things. The object oriented aspects of C++ are very powerful, but it takes a lot to "wrap your brain" around it. Python is the easiest to learn, the fastest to write programs in, and the most intuitive -- but the resulting applications will not run as fast as their C equivalents (this may not be a problem depending on what you are trying to do).
In the case of embedded development systems -- there's more support for C/C++ than Python -- but this may or may not be a problem. Take a look at the following column I wrote a while back and see if it helps answer your questions: Python is better than C! (Or is it the other way round?)
