Matlab is not the same language it was in the 70s. But the core language is still largely about manipulating arrays and it does it well. It has evolved by adding functionality through toolboxes and creating new, innovative developer tooling. But it hasn't jumped on every PL bandwagon that has driven by over the last 50 years.
Matlab's usage is down a bit since a peak at 2017, but over the last 20 years it's up over 300%, and it's done so by being a for-profit language. Mathworks is a billion dollar company, which is quite an achievement in the PL space in 2022.
Meanwhile C++ usage is up over the last couple years but the long term trend has been a steady decline over the last 20 years [1]. From 14% to a low of 4%, now back up to around 8%.
TIOBE is statistical noise. You would equally meaningfully cite your tea leaves, or crows flying overhead.
I mean, if TIOBE was really statistical noise as your claim, there wouldn't be clear trends in industry reflected in the data, like the rise of Python in the last few years. And yet we see it, so clearly it's measuring something.
All languages that are actually useful evolve. They get features that other people need, and you don't, just yet. Some of those features do turn out not to be perfect, because they are made by humans.
Comparing an old language to a new language, the new language will have many fewer of those both because it leaves many old things behind, and because it gets benefit of hindsight for the rest. Give it time, and it will accumulate "incoherence" of its own; the faster it evolves, the faster that happens.
The alternative is for a language not to be used. Then, it can stay pristine and "coherent", and not useful.
This is the human condition.
No, I actually teach C++ and have been keeping up with it for decades. It was the second language I learned in 1994 and I still code in it professionally today.
> Give it time, and it will accumulate "incoherence" of its own; the faster it evolves, the faster that happens.
Like I pointed out with Matlab, it’s a much older language compared to c++ yet is mostly coherent, far more than c++. This has less to do about C++’s age and the March of time or the human condition. Otherwise more old languages would be as incoherent as c++ yet that’s not the case.
My students give me high marks, my department (which includes faculty who have contributed to C++ spec over the years) is satisfied with my teaching, and I graduate students that go on to work at top companies and research labs around the world. I'm doing my job just fine, let's stick to talking about C++.
Your complaint is that it is not dead.