To pick only one example from the list, C++ as written in 1996 was massively different from how most people (except for the Trogoglyte C++ movement or whatever

To pick only one example from the list, C++ as written in 1996 was massively different from how most people (except for the Trogoglyte C++ movement or whatever they call themselves this week) write it nowadays. At the time, it was risky to write code relying on the STL because support for it (especially the template mechanisms required to support it) was quite uneven across compilers. Truly avant garde programmers were just starting to incorporate design patterns (and, of course, overdoing it). It's hard to overstate how much STL based containers changed C++ code. And C++11 caused quite a bit more change.