Incomprehension

Monday, 7 August 2006.

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A friend of mine, an engineer, was writing a computer program—a pet project of his. I, a student of computers, and trained to be knowledgeable of such things, sat beside him and watched him—evaluated him, I suppose, for my own interest—as he wrote his code.

I mused, “C++ is among the worst languages in common use.”

“How is that so?” said he, “It does everything you want it to do!”

“Have you ever tried a different one?”

“No, I've never had the need.”

“Then you couldn’t understand,” said I.