There are a bunch of good languages that have been ignored by the industry. ruby smalltalk python Even objective-C, remember that one? Was awesome compared to C++. peace axeman
Personally I think python does have some level of acceptance, google for one makes extensive use of it . Also Im 98% sure that nasa uses it (ok, Im not sure if that is a good or bad thing). ps - thanks for bringing up obj-c its been awhile since Ive heard anyone talk about C++'s stillborn cousin.
Ive written a lot of code in both, and C++ is a hideously deformed barely functional language compared to objective-c. Just another example that the quality of the technology means nothing. Sometimes first to market just wins, or the language that attracts the biggest backer, etc... Objective-C was like programming in smalltalk, but with the ability to drop down to pure C when you really needed speed. The best of both worlds. Just missing a garbage collector, same problem with C++, or C crap crap as I like to call it peace axeman
For speed, I'd through in a BufferedStream and a hand-rolled number parser if you are sure about the decimal sign, otherwise localization-checks kick in every time. Also, depending on the field separator and the number of fields, rolling you own split with indexOf is a big gainer, because it prevents the creation of many temp objects and the final return array. You're loosing some comfort and nice looking code, though. agrau