The major disadvantage of C++ is that you must recompile and link the object files to create a executable anytime you make a small change.
The scripting language like PIKE eliminates the linking and re-compiling and will really speed up the development process.
As memory (RAM) prices are dropping and CPU speeds are increasing, scripting language like PIKE will EXPLODE in popularity. PIKE will become most widely used scripting language as it is object oriented and it's syntax is very identical to that of C++ language.
Programming productivity will increase by five times by using the Pike C++ scripting language. And Pike is very useful for 'proof of concept' and developing prototypes rapidly.
The Pike is at http://pike.roxen.com and at http://www.roxen.com.
The Roxen Web server is completely written in Pike, which demonstrates how powerful Pike is. Pike runs much faster than Java for some operations and is quite efficient in using memory resources.