Then what is proton written in? C++?

wine and vkd3d are plain and simple C99.

Likely because their engineers are more productive in C++?

Modern C++ with move semantics is a lot more easy to reason about and memory safe than C99, IMO.

Since it's a greenfield project, they didn't have to worry about the nasty baggage of legacy C++ spaghetti that kills most projects.

Just because you prefer "simple" C99 doesn't mean they do :)

I think there is something wrong with them because they are failing to see that the c++ syntax has an abysmal complexity which propagates the toolchain implementation.

This is the only reason you need to make this language a definitive nono.

They should be ashamed of themselves, and if they are not, well, they are toxic, and they are doing it at worldwide scale.

Ironically, I think this comment is much more toxic than a developer writing free software in a language of their choosing.

You are right of course that c++ is abysmal. What your are overlooking is that C is an even bigger trash fire nuclear foot gun.

Could you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN? We're trying for something else here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html