It all depends on your definition of improvement...
C is a bit like a Formula One car. Regardless of the historic reasons that caused it to evolve the way it did, it ended up occupying a niche and being very well suited to it, while at the same time being ill suited for other, more general purpose, uses. Under that perspective, change is slow because the people most invested in it want to make improvement happen in a very narrow and precise direction. McLaren, after all, is not going to bat an eye if you complain about its latest model lacking a baby seat!!!
C++, on the other hand, started sort of like NASCAR racing. It wanted to make a racing car out of a mundane, everyday car, and it got very, very good at it. Unfortunatelly, because C++ is based in an everyday car, and because it is Designed-by-Committee (TM), it shows lots and lots of "improvements" that individually kind of make sense, but in the bulk lack any coherence. Nowadays, C++ may perform like the Batmobile (from "Batman Begins" movie) on a good day; but you never know when it is going to bite you in the ass and turn into the Homermobile from the 90's Simpson's TV show.
It is a mix of necessity and lack of insight that many of the people in my generation had to learn how to drive in fucking racing carts!!! But when it's all said and done it gives you a little perspective on how things work and helps you appreciate the differences.
C is a bit like a Formula One car. Regardless of the historic reasons that caused it to evolve the way it did, it ended up occupying a niche and being very well suited to it, while at the same time being ill suited for other, more general purpose, uses. Under that perspective, change is slow because the people most invested in it want to make improvement happen in a very narrow and precise direction. McLaren, after all, is not going to bat an eye if you complain about its latest model lacking a baby seat!!!
C++, on the other hand, started sort of like NASCAR racing. It wanted to make a racing car out of a mundane, everyday car, and it got very, very good at it. Unfortunatelly, because C++ is based in an everyday car, and because it is Designed-by-Committee (TM), it shows lots and lots of "improvements" that individually kind of make sense, but in the bulk lack any coherence. Nowadays, C++ may perform like the Batmobile (from "Batman Begins" movie) on a good day; but you never know when it is going to bite you in the ass and turn into the Homermobile from the 90's Simpson's TV show.
It is a mix of necessity and lack of insight that many of the people in my generation had to learn how to drive in fucking racing carts!!! But when it's all said and done it gives you a little perspective on how things work and helps you appreciate the differences.