Quick riches are more dangerous than poverty.
Correctness is clearly the prime quality. If a system does not do what it is supposed to do, then everything else about it matters little.
You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time.
There are only two things wrong with C++: The initial concept and the implementation.
Writing a class without its contract would be similar to producing an engineering component (electrical circuit, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) chip, bridge, engine. . . ) without a spec. No professional engineer would even consider the idea.
Careful as they may be, developers of Eiffel libraries will always run into cases in which, after releasing a library class, they suddenly experience what in French is called esprit de l'escalier or wit of the staircase: a great thought which unfortunately is an afterthought, like a clever reply that would have stunned all the other dinner guests - if only you had thought of it before walking down the stairs after the party is over.
As Mr. Nagle so competently points out, almost no one uses Eiffel; in fact until recently there were only 9 users. But now a 10th person just started, so we are holding a conference, appropriately titled the TENTH Eiffel USER conference, to celebrate.
If I thought that any of this was pre ordained, then it takes away any kind of incentive to struggle, or to put up with things, to reach for those impossible dreams, all those dramatic things.
It was the evidence from science and history that prompted me to abandon my atheism and become a Christian.
I consider chess an art, and accept all those responsibilities which art places upon its devotees.
I don't think vodka is useful. I think it's for people who don't like alcohol, in which case, you probably shouldn't be drinking it.