What did Bjarne Stroustrup supposedly say? There are two kinds of programming languages: the ones everybody complains about, and the ones nobody uses. I'll put

What did Bjarne Stroustrup supposedly say? There are two kinds of programming languages: the ones everybody complains about, and the ones nobody uses. I'll put on my Scheme hat and say "with hygienic macros, people can add whichever language features they want." Maybe Rust is a good experiment along those lines: C++ with hygienic macros. Everything that people keep using grows into a monster of complexity: programming languages, software, operating systems, law. You must maintain backward compatibility, and the urge to add a new feature is too great. There's a cost with moving to the new thing -- let's just put the new thing in the old thing.