I, too, wrote C++ for the 386 in the early nineties, and I, too, generally prefer it to C, but the fact remains that it has some real disadvantages compared to

I, too, wrote C++ for the 386 in the early nineties, and I, too, generally prefer it to C, but the fact remains that it has some real disadvantages compared to C. From the very early days people talked about exercising discipline and selecting a C++ subset - and it can and does work - but even that discipline isn't free. Avoiding destructors, for example, isn't easy or natural in C++; explicit virtual dispatch with hand-rolled v-tables is very unnatural.