Defective C++

Developments in C++ have been dramatic since then, but they haven't changed the core issues. For instance the lack of reflection, unstable interfaces, etc.

I remember in the 1980s in Byte magazine and Dr Dobbs Journal seeing the statement that software components were a pipe dream and that is definitely true if there is no reflection or stable binary interfaces.

The article grumbles about commercial influences but the original sin of C++ comes from academic influences, C++ is somebody's science project written as a preprocessor for the C language; much of the stupidity is not a conscious choice of language design but an accident of implementation.

The worst thing about the C++ mafia is that they think that dealing with an incomprehensible language proves they are smart and that anyone who complains is intellectually feeble.