Is the number of C++ users still doubling every year?
No. During 1980-1991, the number of users doubled every seven and a half months (see The Design and Evolution of C++). However, there simply aren’t enough programmers to sustain that. From the few numbers I can get (compiler sales, book sales, workloads of consultants I happen to know, IDC, etc.), I estimate that the growth rate is a few percent. Steady and definitely positive. IDC estimated that 1.2 million C++ Implementations were sold in 1996. Their 2001 estimate of the number of C++ programmers was “about 3 million”; their 2004 number was “more than 3 million”. That seems plausible and indicates a continued growth.
