June 13, 2026
The Church of C++ Splits Again
Orthodox C++
A coder’s anti-fancy manifesto sparks eye-rolls, jokes, and a full-on comment war
TLDR: “Orthodox C++” argues programmers should avoid many newer C++ features and stick to a stripped-down, old-school style. Commenters were split between loving the simplicity and mocking it as rigid anti-modern preaching, with plenty of jokes about religion, schisms, and “cold dead hands.”
A spicy little manifesto called “Orthodox C++” rolled into the internet with a simple message: stop using most of modern C++ and write code that looks a lot more like old-school C. In plain English, the author wants programmers to ditch a bunch of newer tools and habits, keep things minimal, and even say goodbye to things many developers now treat as normal. The pitch is nostalgia-meets-discipline: simpler code, fewer surprises, and better compatibility with older systems. The community response? Absolutely not without a fight.
The loudest reactions came from developers who felt this wasn’t a style guide so much as a declaration of war. One commenter dramatically said you could take their beloved shortcut-style syntax “from my cold dead hands,” while another mocked the whole vibe as pure dogma: “Don’t follow dogma.” That was the real battleground here — not just code, but identity. Is this a wise back-to-basics movement, or just someone angrily trying to turn C++ back into C?
And because the internet never wastes a chance for jokes, the thread quickly went sideways in the best way. One person mourned the missed pun of calling it “C ✝”, while another admitted they expected a religious split from HolyC, the famously eccentric language from TempleOS. Even the repost history got dragged in, with users noting this debate keeps rising from the dead. Verdict: the article tried to preach simplicity, but the comments turned it into a full-blown church schism with memes.
Key Points
- •The article defines Orthodox C++ as a minimal subset of C++ intended to improve C while avoiding many modern C++ features.
- •It argues that using a constrained subset can produce code that is simpler, easier to understand, and compatible with older compilers.
- •The article recommends a C-like coding style, illustrated with a Hello World example using <stdio.h> and printf.
- •It advises against exceptions, RTTI, C++ wrapper headers, stream I/O, memory-allocating STL usage, excessive metaprogramming, and modules.
- •It also recommends caution with newly introduced standard features, using constexpr’s progression from C++11 to C++14 as an example.