I don't get this... Is he teaching a language he himself doesn't quite understand? (I don't know the author). Or is he complaining that C++ is difficult and that it should be something it clearly isn't. Implicit conversions, size_t, the way hardware dictates how wrap around zero works... that's all pretty basic stuff i the context of C++. If you know this stuff, you also know that you shouldn't teach it in any sort of introductory CS courses. It's all white noise. Many other languages suffer from similar (sometimes self-inflicted) quirks. He should stick with Scheme.