"C has retained its popularity because the answer to the question what is the lowest level language I can code in without using assembly has always been C"
What a way to miss the point! There are plenty of languages between assembly and C. C wins because it's about as high-level as you can get before you start incurring run-time penalties.
This article appears to directly contradict its main point, by claiming lisp is the most exclusive language, which everyone would want to use, yet almost no-one uses it.
I wouldn't say "improves on it." It certainly does bring a lot of really nice functional features to the table (oh, I love async and lambdas, and futures are such a nice tool to have), and it fixes a lot of problems that have plagued the language for decades, but it doesn't "improve" on functional programming any more than Java does.
There are a variety of techniques for implementing lazy evaluation when using C++. What's stopping you from using these approaches, or using an existing library like Boost Phoenix?
I completely disagree. C++ is not perfect, but it's evolving. I started my oo programing with java. I have used c#, go, obj c and many others. But I think C++ is still the best.
Not sure I'd say that human speech is the highest level programming language. Human speech is just too vague.
I always wonder when someone will invent a programming language that is built for the mobile programmer. I don't mean mobile devices, I mean the programmer can program while walking around. Transparent hud, microgestures, something like that. That'd be pretty high level.
What a load of nonsense.
Human speech is a lousy language for precise expression, and often fails even for human-to-human communication. This is why we invented mathematics.
I stopped reading at that point.