I have not found an answer to the question why C++ is the most preferred
language. I thought it would be a good question to ask in this newsgroup
that has programmers that have been using C++ for a while.
I did read that its popular because it can be transferred to other
platforms but not everyone has more than one platform.
because it sucks less than the other options?...
many people tend to thing of things in terms of being "better" or "more
preferable" (like there is some significant "good" that pulls people to
a particular solution), but I suspect this may be backwards.
I suspect, instead, people tend to avoid serious drawbacks, and the
option the with least serious drawbacks wins by default.
historically, both C and C++ have been in a fairly good spot here.
this may be partly due to being reasonably free of crippling design
flaws (or, at least real design flaws, as opposed to people complaining
that it doesn't really follow idiom-X or fad-Y or prevents bad-practice-Z).
whereas, many other languages have had maybe a few nifty features, but
often at the cost of being seriously crippled or broken in some other
area (often denied, downplayed, or claimed to actually be a feature, by
people who endorse the language...).
usually, this is not about idioms, but rather, things which impede using
the language in one way or another (such as awkward or unreadable
syntax, broken semantics, ...), or limit its effectiveness at performing
an operation (such as arbitrary limitations, poor performance, tendency
to misbehave or be overly difficult to debug, ...).
so, most people largely end up using what works...
though, this is not to say it is perfect either, for that matter...