> From the outside, C++ appears to be such a mess
Implying that you don't exactly even know the language, if it really is such a mess you think it is. I bet a bunch it really isn't.
> I actually cannot tell whether C++1 made it better or worse.
This really just shows the fact that you are clueless about C++ and what C++11 brings to the table. Whatever you think has no relevance. Not because your opinion would be less valuable, but because you can't be objective about something you don't understand. You just follow what you hear from others - often times those who are in the same situation. Hooray for circle jerking over how C++ sucks. This leads nobody nowhere.
This is a major problem with C++, but it's mainly a problem for people who don't write any C++.
So what does C++11 bring to the table? To mention some:
Safety
- Standardized smart pointers, nullptr, better type-safety
Performance
- Rvalue references, move semantics, constant expressions with constexpr
Concurrency
- Standard facilities for threading, async, futures
Language features
- lambda expressions, support for UTF8/16/32, uniform initialization
Libraries
- std::chrono for various time handling facilities, standard random number engines and generators, hash tables, regular expressions, tuples
There's also plans to introduce more libraries to C++ next year, and evolve the language through libraries rather than the core language specification.
Many of the problems people face with C++ can be avoided, and people know it. Many of the problems in existing code bases are fault of poor design. (Blaming C++ for multiple inheritance because the designer shot themselves to the foot by not being competent at designing software is a prime example. It's not like the same functionality couldn't have been implemented via policy-based or component-based design for example. Easier to blame the tool than the user, I get that.)
Of course, those who use the language just avoid them and those who don't use the language keep bitching about them. Strange.