Serious game developers often do not use STL as a matter of habit and principle.
That goes for most of your points about standard libraries. If you are developing code that you expect (or hope) to run on Windows, Linux, Nintendo consoles, phones, PS4's and Xboxes and expect to know the real performance cost of operations, you will be writing all of your own standard libraries anyway. It is very much a problem of "...the complexity of non-standardized often-inconsistent idiosyncratic platforms and libraries for achieving the same things."
> Complexity of implementation is not complexity of use.
And that's where the language complexity comes into play. Game developers who are bootstrapping need to implement and use these pieces. If you are simplifying your life with C++ features, you must know the ins-and-outs and you cannot rely on new language features because you don't have a choice of compiler in most cases.
> I find looking up language features, and quirky 'clever' api's incredibly tiring. The ideal language would be one I can memorize, and then never have to look things up.
This is a fair ask and is definitely more accurate of C than C++. What you might write is longer, more tedious code, but that is its own trade-off.
That goes for most of your points about standard libraries. If you are developing code that you expect (or hope) to run on Windows, Linux, Nintendo consoles, phones, PS4's and Xboxes and expect to know the real performance cost of operations, you will be writing all of your own standard libraries anyway. It is very much a problem of "...the complexity of non-standardized often-inconsistent idiosyncratic platforms and libraries for achieving the same things."
> Complexity of implementation is not complexity of use.
And that's where the language complexity comes into play. Game developers who are bootstrapping need to implement and use these pieces. If you are simplifying your life with C++ features, you must know the ins-and-outs and you cannot rely on new language features because you don't have a choice of compiler in most cases.
> I find looking up language features, and quirky 'clever' api's incredibly tiring. The ideal language would be one I can memorize, and then never have to look things up.
This is a fair ask and is definitely more accurate of C than C++. What you might write is longer, more tedious code, but that is its own trade-off.