>> Looking at "modern" C++ makes me angry. I wasted so much time learning all of this incidental complexity that just gets in the way of software development.

>> Looking at "modern" C++ makes me angry. I wasted so much time learning all of this incidental complexity that just gets in the way of software development. C++ was a huge part of my life as a developer back in the late 80's and early 90's. I used it. I taught it to other developers at major corporations. I once met Bjarne at a conference and he signed my copy of the ARM. It wouldn't make sense to view all of that period as wasted time. C++ was the best tool for a lot of tasks for a long time. It was the most powerful and expressive implementation of OOP (imo) at a time when we were just beginning to understand higher levels of abstraction in program structure. Yes, we've moved on, and it would be strange if we hadn't. I don't see any reason to regard the path we've traveled as a waste, though.