The real horror is how much thicker the C++ standard is than any of the thick documents mentioned in the speech. If people like Knuth, Hoare, etc. were working

The real horror is how much thicker the C++ standard is than any of the thick documents mentioned in the speech. If people like Knuth, Hoare, etc. were working towards a dream where programming has the rigor of physics, the modern situation is more akin to alchemy.