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I would argue that is a good measure of the simplicity of the language itself, but not a measure of the simplicity of the use of the language. By that measure, Malbolge is a simple language than C++ by a factor of ~1000. However, it is still much simpler to write code in C++ than in Malbolge.

I said absolutely nothing about ease of use.

For many simplicity is defined by ease of use though.

Ease of use is subjective. It depends on people's goals, skills and even tastes.

As long as the result is shorter than 1500 pages (afair), your language is simpler than C++.

And the C++ specification isn't even a formal one.

Why don't you do it?

Because I have no time to study languages I dislike, and the one that I do like (Standard ML) already has a formal semantics and a type safety proof.