I think the "C++ is huge" complaints are a bit overblown. C++ is huge, but most of its new features are designed with backwards compatibility in mind - if the size of the language bothers you, then you can write the limited subset of whatever C++ you know, or even just straight-up C, while making use of new features (auto, foreach, smart pointers) as you see fit. It's an all-you-can eat standard library buffet.