I've been writing C++ for more than 20 years, too. In perspective, I made some mistakes when choosing writing many C++ components that could have been better/si

I've been writing C++ for more than 20 years, too. In perspective, I made some mistakes when choosing writing many C++ components that could have been better/simpler/cheaper in plain C, with some abstraction via libraries (e.g. because complexes of not being seen as "smart enough", etc.). Writing simple/compact programs is hard both in C and C++, although, from my experience, bloat comes much more from C++ (inlining, etc.). BTW, Salvatore Sanfilippo (antirez) is a very sharp programmer, able to write programs without redundancy and look easy (which is very difficult to achieve).