Apache resigns from the Java Community Process executive committee

You're missing the point. vtables can be useful, but you just don't need them that often. The fact that there is a special syntax in C++ encourages people to write bad code.

There are numerous examples of vtables in the Linux kernel. Usually it's just as simple as a struct with function pointers and a registration function that's called on that struct.

C++'s special syntax for vtables makes it quicker to create them, but does it make it easier to do it correctly? In my experience, most C++ programmers don't know the hidden gotchas that lurk everywhere once you first type "virtual."

For example, what's the problem here?

class Foo {
public:
  virtual ~Foo() { log("destroying Foo."); }
protected:
  virtual void log(const std::string & foo) { }
};

class LoggedFoo : public Foo {
public:
protected:
  virtual void log(const std::string & str) {
    std::cout << "logging important message " << str << std::endl;
  }
};

There is no special syntax for it, but on the other hand, returning a reference isn't very verbose (and you can use a macro to make it shorter).

The minimum accessor length I can think of is something like this:

const Foo & foo() const { return _foo; }

Well, Go may be a nice language but sometimes you don't want a garbage collector.

If you don't want a garbage collector, why not just write it in C? C++ represents the awkward, error-prone adolescence of higher-level languages, not their future.