On a related note. I remember reading "The design and evolution of C++" where Bjarne Stroustrup explains a lot of the decisions and trade offs he had to make when he evolved C++. It is a great book because it teaches you that changing the design of software that is widely used is very difficult.

Java had it easy at the beginning as it was able to fix many of the problems that Bjarne could not because he had to maintain compatibility. Now that Java is widely used it has become more difficult to change its design.