Oh, Goddammit: I'm Back on C++ in 2026

The title for my autobiography would probably be I Thought I Was a Child Prodigy But I Am Actually a Late Bloomer. Going from being the youngest guy in the room to the oldest guy in the room happens suddenly, surprisingly, and permanently. As such, the programming languages and technologies I learned long ago are esoteric knowledge but the systems they run on still exist. Everything’s moved up a level of abstraction or six and there’s a lot of low-hanging value in plain old systems programming again. So for the first time since 2014 or so I found myself writing C++ starting March 2026 and carrying over to today in late 2026, both dates in 2026. 2026. Why C++ From the start, quite simply: Windows APIs. Relatively obscure ones. They come with C++ headers and opaque .lib files and COM interfaces that fall well outside of the coverage footprint of windows-rs. I’m writing RDP plugins, which with some gymnastics I could do in Rust but it would be a lot more work to do the cooler thing. It’s…