Couldn't agree more, a much better investment of anyones time. C++ won't suddenly refuse to solve your problems because they don't fit into an arbitrarily limited view of the world. And some of the stuff coming out of standardization lately is simply awesome.
Sure thing. Bear in mind that this is my way of doing it; plenty of people will yell blasphemy at the choices I make, and some may well turn out to be suboptimal without 32 years of experience to back them up.
