Bartosz Milewsk at Reliable Software has made a short but very interesting article that I think summarizes extremely well how I have felt my whole journey with the C++ language has been and where I see felt it's all ending up to be like:
...But if a language is disproportionately complex, it starts adding complexity to the problem you're trying to solve instead of reducing it. There are endless examples of unnecessary complexity in C++.
Accidentally, the parsing difficulties of C++ might be the biggest roadblock in its evolution. ...As long as C++ gurus live in the clouds of the Olympus, they won't see the need for this kind of evolution. That's why C++ becomes more and more elitist. In the future, people who do NYT crossword puzzles and the ones who program in C++ will be in the same category.
and...
... C++ is becoming a freak language that's parading its disfigurements in front of mildly disgusted but curiously fascinated audience.
"So you have to put a space between angle brackets? How bizarre!"
"Are you telling me that you can't pass an instance of a locally defined class to an STL algorithm? How curious!" ...
I won't quote more. Read the article, it's very amusing, interesting, and ummm... true. At least to me it is. I love the point he makes of C++ and Java/C# in all this. How true.
I have felt at times that those who cherish their long-hours earned skill in C++ sometimes defend their L33tz programming skills sneering at the "lesser programmers" the same way someone who loves Linux a bit too much sneers at the concept that pershaps some tasks can indeed benefit from a more GUI/easier interface approach.
I believe Joel called this "those who sneer at those programmers who code in a language that doesn't have blocks of { }'s."
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