It was Bjarne himself who said that there are two kinds of programming languages: those everyone complains about, and those that nobody uses.

I'm sure that was said more or less as a joke, but it rubs me the wrong way. The basic suggestion here is that no language that reaches sufficient usage is going to be without its problems. That's fair, but I'm reading from it an implication that the criticism is purely due to its popularity, and that's not fair. There are a lot of problems with C++; some are fixable, some are too inherent in the design to be fixed. A lot of what could be fixed has been, and that's fantastic, but there's still plenty of room for legitimate criticism that has nothing to do with hating what's popular.

Regarding languages that "nobody uses," that doesn't necessarily say anything about their quality; some things just don't take off for whatever confluence of reasons. It remains to be seen whether D specifically will or will not, but from what I understand, it is very well-designed and avoids a lot of the design issues present in C++. That's really cool if true and I'm looking forward to seeing if those claims hold up.

On the other hand, the people behind it seem to be pretty active and passionate about it, which is a good sign.

When I'm working on any project of significance (which isn't often anymore), I tend to write in C, so what you said is about as far off-base as you can get.

I don't know why you're fanboying about a language like C++ (or any language, for that matter; being a fanboy is stupid, and that is what you're doing), but I was just airing my thoughts on the topic, which is what TFS asked for. If you can't possibly comprehend why someone would deign to suggest your glorious C++ is anything but the result of angels crying tears of code, here's one perspective on some of its issues; it's certainly not the only one of its kind (but it's more in-depth and better-written than anything I'd come up with in a comment on /.).

I can't stand C++, but they are doing a good job of making it considerably less horrible with every iteration. If they keep it up, the end result will be a well-polished and beautiful turd that is, nonetheless, still a turd. I don't think it's salvageable; if we want something good that serves the same role as C++, it will need to be something completely new with similar goals. D sounds interesting, but I don't really know much about it other than it sounds neat.

The problem is that some tools are worse than others. Yes, an artisan craftsman can make a good house with a carp and some thumbtacks, but that doesn't mean those are good tools. C++ is not a good language, nor are any of the languages he mentioned, and they just make things all-around worse for everyone involved.

And another reminder...

Then explain why he's wrong rather than posting a bunch of ad hominem garbage.

I don't think so. New ones *will* stop being found, or at least the rate of finding will slow down, especially if they're being patched. The effort required to find such exploits will also go up, which will also raise the price on the black market. Past a certain point, blackhats will likely just focus their efforts elsewhere.

One of the problems I've heard for people who get them in late (heck, it's a problem for me and I have no hearing problems whatsoever) is that you can't really shut it off. That's constant stimulus that you have that you never had before, and that can lead to serious sleep problems.

The funny thing is, this seems like it has an easy enough solution: just research a way to let people turn them off at will. Maybe it's not that easy, though.

The most accomplished spy I know of was Garbo, a double-agent who successfully convinced Nazi Germany that D-Day was just a diversion, among many other things. His story is fascinating.

Yeah, I think I would have bought a new console, too. Not a Microsoft one, though.