[alexeiz]

The thing that bothers me about GSG is that it seems to be enforced across Google no matter what team you're in or what project you work on. Think about it: somebody who thinks that he knows better than you decided how you and other 10000s developers at Google should use C++. I think such approach is incredibly inflexible and shortsighted. Even if that somebody is a well-renowned C++ expert I would still doubt he can come up with the C++ style guide applicable to the whole Google. If I lead a project at Google I don't want someone unrelated to my project or some committee higher up to make decisions for my team. I want my team to decide how to use C++ (or any other language or technology for that matter) based on the project needs and the team developer skills. One coding style for everyone reduces the skill level of everyone to the lowest common denominator. Even if you have better skilled developers around you, if they can't use their skills professionally, they either quit or lose their skills. Soon you'll be surrounded by developers with only poor skills who you can learn nothing from. I remember a story told by Sean Parent (if you don't know him, look him up) about the time he worked at Google and he was told that his code is hard to understand because it uses concepts and ideas nobody at Google is familiar with (because they are likely not part of the GSG). I find that story quite instructive.