[aric]

D is a better alternative for many people. Speaking of Scott Meyers, C++, and D, his talk at DConf 2014 was humorous and you'll get a better sense of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48kP_Ssg2eY

It depends on your actual goals. Personally, though I prefer Go for everything when possible, my favorite alternative to C++ is C++. If you want a true alternative, Rust is probably a smarter investment of time compared to D, based on traction. However, I'm uninformed about the D community as of late, and certainly won't be surprised of a future surge.

[istvan__]

Thanks this video is just too funny. I was aware of the quirkiness of C++ but this is very insightful.

On the Go note, I like it but I think the target of Go is system programming with great concurrency support. More about Go here: http://yager.io/programming/go.html

Rust seems to incorporate all of the academic research about programming languages and also moves towards memory safety and correctness, and that is a good start. See what happens in the next 10 years! :)

[aric]

Scott is hilarious. He's a bundle of insight. The slight jest about C++ being an alternative to itself sums it up: it can be a multidimensional beast. Quirky is a very kind way to describe smashing one's head on a keyboard repeatedly. That said, C++11 changed its game. It's so much easier to write in it without inducing bleeding eye syndrome.

The Go article has some fair points. Yet, most of the reasons the author discounts Go are reasons I prefer Go. Its minimalism is a virtue. I'm grateful that it ignores a lot of research overload. It's grounding. I see more and do more in it. Reading people's code and the standard library itself isn't painful. Go is versatile. Systems don't sum it up. In my view, it'll have a healthy stride in a lot of other areas outside of networking and the web, given time (e.g. desktop GUIs, mobile, games, game servers, etc.). In 10 years, we'll have exhausted all letters and be back on C.