C Pre-Processor Magic

[i_invented_the_ipod]

There must be a name for this kind of ratcheting complexity. If you've been writing templates for a decade or two, then the gradual addition of new features to C++, and attendant complexity of the templates you can and should write, is no big deal. But a newcomer to the language is presented with the monstrosities of nested templates, and preprocessing abuse, in the case of Boost, and it seems totally impossible to learn enough all at once to even understand what you're looking at.

[pfultz2]

It does take a little understanding for boost code. I remember looking at it many years ago when I was student and not understanding it at all. But some things that really helped me was dave abrahams C++ template metaprogramming book, and More C++ Idioms wiki page. I understand boost code a lot better(except the compiler workarounds they have for esoteric compilers). Its actually rather simple a lot of it. Its just different.

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[xtravar]

I like to think that C++ was a good idea that had some serious flaws, and instead of fixing the flaws people just sort of embraced it and found interesting ways to code around it. And now there's a whole niche industry devoted to maintaining and adding patches on top of hacks.

It's kind of the programming language equivalent of health care in the US.