Re: C++ is great
So I said "It is you who miss the point. C and C++ are self-obsessed languages. You absolutely have to know what there is and why it might be marked deprecated or something softer. To understand C++, you must understand that."
Someone Else (SE) responds: "Complete garbage. I believe I have a firm understanding of C++ (I've been using it successfully and commercially since '92,"
That proves my point SE has been following this for nearly 30 years – about the same time since I was assigned to a large X.500 C++ project. People who have been involved with the language for that long can't understand how they have followed the history and changes, but for someone new to the language trying to understand all that is difficult. That is why I said C and C++ are 'self-obsessed' languages.
"But understanding the history of the changes? Bah" you just don't get it. You have been doing it for 30 years. Perhaps you understand not to use pointers and rather references or smart pointers or whatever. It is not just a case of syntax (although C++ is peculiarly convoluted and ugly). To understand C++ and why it is the way it is you need to read the history and evolution books, more so than in any other language. And that is for regular programmers, when it should really only be for the language lawyers. In other words C++ exposes all that when other languages abstracts that working away.
"Oh, and "self-obsessed"? Puh-LEEZE! You have a lot of damn gall to project your personal opinion on the entirety of the ANSI and ISO standards committees. Methinks you overreach, my friend."
OK, I'll address that again. Complexity becomes self obsessed. Complex technologies get lock in. Note how obsesses C and C++ people are, always leaping to defence whenever anyone criticise them. There is an obsession around C and C++ that is almost cult like – day anything that is wrong and abuse those who point them out.
I've been involved in ISO myself and there is a lot of posturing that goes on. The observations are not overreach. But there are probably some good minds trying to fix C++ and get it right. But it still is not in that position in 2020 and they still have things left out to fix in 2023. And those are things that have been around for 30 years. The problem is trying to kludge them into a language that was not suitable in the first place.