alt Hacker NewsIf he doesn't use C++ features then there's no point of bothering with C++ at all. C++ is kinda but not really a superset of C. There are some nice features that are lacking in C++.
The fixie example wants to make the comparison that using C instead of C++ is deliverately done just to brag about doing something in a way that is more difficult than in should be. In reality the issue is that C++ might not offer you any benefit at all and it could potentially bring you issues later on for things such as interfacing with other languages.
I personally do not see the point of using C++ if you do not use any of its features.
Usually you start with just one feature, like std::map instead of OpenSSL's abomination of a hashmap library or rolling your own.
Of course you should use std::unordered_map instead of std::map because the latter is actually a treemap, but you probably don't know that when you first learn it...