Programming Language to Replace C++

I think we can all agree that C++ is a terrible language. So why is it still around?

When talking to most C++ users (game developers, systems programmers), I've found that most seem to recognize C++'s faults, but they don't really care. They aren't even the slightest bit interested in a new language that might solve its problems, even one that gives them all the power of C++ with none of the downsides. You can't even get them to look at something new.

Why is that? Why does everyone just 'live with it' without wanting to improve the situation?

>>2
That's not so true. No group on the whole is looking to replace their working solutions viz. PL by inventing better ones, however game developers have used everything from assembler to lisp to lua. It's simply a C++-heavy environment because performance and abstraction are equally important given the need for industrial flash (usually in the form of 3D performance) and short development cycles.

Systems programmers have fewer excursions, but are more inventive. Take a look at BitC, Rust and Go. None of these are flavours of C, so I'll brace for the argument by foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, even if you need to build an OS kernel (with loader) from the ground up BitC intends to accommodate you. If you don't require that in your definition of systems language, the others will blip on the radar.

>>3
where they don't give a shit about GC pauses
Some of them do. Go at least pays lip service to this concern, but I don't know what the current state of their GC is. malloc also gives you GC pauses, by the way.

The advantage of doing it manually is that you will never call malloc while handling a real time event. You probably avoid it because malloc isn't reentrant or just because you were told not to, but the real advantage of manual GC is that you can control the timing, and a happy coincidence often prevents you from writing correct programs with bad timing. So if a language will allow you to suspend auto GC, there's no need to complain.