> What is the rationale for not allowing newer language features?
"They aren't proven"
"They aren't mature enough"
"They are bloat"
"They make the code too complex"
"They don't scale"
"They are slow"
"They make it hard to read the code"
"The language vendor might pull the plug on them"
"They have bugs"
"They aren't any easier than <MY_WAY>"
If you read between the lines, people that object to new language features are almost always doing it for a single reason, which they may not even admit to themselves:
"I'm not a competent enough developer to understand the language feature, so nobody should use the feature"
In this context, the rationale was little more than this being the last version in which "John" had done significant day-to-day programming, and therefore felt informed enough to interfere with on a daily basis. My personal take was that a lot of the negative behaviour was being unable to "let go" and accept no longer feeling like the best programmer in the organisation.
