After 35 years of C++ on and off, I have pretty much given up it. I don't have the mental energy to deal with its complexity anymore. I will deal with parts of C++11 or C++14, mostly so that I can read other people's Arduino code.
I think I would rather learn a new language (Rust?) than deal with the hairball that is called "modern C++".
The vast majority of programmers' lives is spent reading code. We need to be able to interpret, repair and extend the work of others.
I often hear this defense of C++, that you only need to know certain parts and the rest are for "library writers". This is an absurd argument, but not exactly surprising from the core C++ cult(and I say this with 26 years as a C/C++ dev). It's almost as if there are two separate camps, one writing and maintaining production software, and another group which only works on language internals and is becoming further divorced from reality.
But many offer better ways to do familiar things, that make the overall programming experience more pleasant. Use those as soon as the compiler you use gets support for them. Often they make bugs harder to write, and correct code easier to write. Now we can write
for (auto const& [key, value] : map) { ... }
for (Map::const_iterator_type it = map.cbegin; it != map.cend; ++it) {
Map::key_type const& key = it->first;
Map::mapped_type const& value = it->second;
...
}
Another example is extension of "constexpr" to more and more of the language; each eliminates the need for some range of template metaprogramming. Nowadays you can ignore almost everything written about template metaprogramming, because there are good, straightforward ways to achieve its aims with ordinary language features.
An actual engineer or carpenter doesn't master every conceivable tool before beginning their work, they can't, there's too many.
Say what you will about C++ programmers, but at least they are free from the burden of trying to use a perfect language and can focus on more important things.
As a C++ dev - If you don’t need C++ then choose whatever other modern language.
We keep up with C++ because of specific constraints other languages don’t fill.
People use Java because they work in a Java shop. Similarly, COBOL.
I would say most programmers, in any language, are free from that burden: once they picked their language they can focus on those important things.
I learn something new all the time when I explore new codebases or even less beaten corners of existing codebases. Only a tiny fraction of the time it is a new facet of the language.