Maintaining backward compatibility is very important because C++ is used in many places for software that have very high development costs, since generally, C++

Maintaining backward compatibility is very important because C++ is used in many places for software that have very high development costs, since generally, C++ code that is written, doesn't get written to be thrown away, like I'm sure it's the case for other languages. Like it or not, C++ is much harder to write than other languages, so of course applications in php or js, since they are more easily written, can be tossed away since they're cheaper to write. Breaking C++ backward compatibility would induce an immense cost on the industry. New languages don't have that problem, obviously, and it's hard to see if they would have that problem if they would have the level of adoption of C++. Not to mention that even if it's decided to break backward compatibility, it might be decided to do it not once, but several times, and it would further induce more costs. C++ is also one of those languages that is used by many big companies, because it's actually well standardized (how many languages are that well standardized, and used for sensitive software, like C++ is). You don't have that many languages like this one. Like always, "there are languages people complain about, and languages nobody uses". Although I agree that things should be removed, but I honestly am not expert enough to understand which and why. Also those companies are still able to use their own compilers if they wish, and break compatibility if they want to.