I did and do a fair share of C++ programming, but I disagree that it is fun to program in C++. Nearly everything is tedious in C++. Just to give one example: yo

I did and do a fair share of C++ programming, but I disagree that it is fun to program in C++. Nearly everything is tedious in C++. Just to give one example: you can quickly prototype a class in Python or Ruby and rapidly revise it as your insight with respect to the problem improves. In C++ you have to decide for each member whether it should be an ordinary value, reference, pointer, or smart pointer, which methods to make virtual, behavior for the copy constructor and assignment operator, etc. Of course, this is a double-edged sword. Higher-level languages have made choices so that you do not have to tinker with such details. But that also prevents you to decide on such behavior when necessary. C++0x goes a long way in making many aspects of the language more enjoyable, such as type inference, lambda functions, range based loops and defaulted/deleted methods. But once a performant alternative shows up and becomes mainstream (strict Haskell? ;)), I will switch.