I find the comment on C++ interesting. Having worked in Flavors/CLOS on Lisp (Lisp is slow was a criticism then also), I found C++ a step backwards not realizin

I find the comment on C++ interesting. Having worked in Flavors/CLOS on Lisp (Lisp is slow was a criticism then also), I found C++ a step backwards not realizing that at the time C++ was just an attempt at codifying what programmers were already doing with macros in C. But with C++ a lot of what OOP was meant to be was lost. Java was somewhat of an improvement, GC, single inheritance, etc. C++ didn't really lift the programmer away from the machine, so poor programmers who never learned proper memory management, etc. could cut themselves up pretty badly. Coplien's book on how to do symbolic programming correctly in C++ was a positive development but I suspect likely lost on most C++ programmers. I couldn't agree more with your comments about the quality of discussion. I can only add that as an older programmer I'm also disheartened by the ignorance of history. In my generation calling someone a dirty hippie was fighting words and I had thought we had learned to be tolerant of others. When I see the vicious and nasty remarks people make about Richard Stallman I can only surmise that they have no clue as to the work he has done on the tools that we use daily. Emacs is crufty and shows it's age but contains a lot of fantastic ideas that have made it the timeless tool it is. But this is human nature. My mother used to tell me to never say anything to or about someone that you won't say to their face. I plan on pointing this out to this fellow Zed Shaw should I ever have the pleasure of meeting him :)