Historical Figure
Bjarne Stroustrup
b. 1950
Danish computer scientist, creator of C++ (born 1950)
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"Lex Fridman Podcast on C++" — February 27, 2020
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Biography
Bjarne Stroustrup is a Danish computer scientist, known for the development of the C++ programming language. He led the Large-scale Programming Research department at Bell Labs, served as a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University, and spent over a decade at Morgan Stanley while also being a visiting professor at Columbia University. Since 2022 he has been a full professor at Columbia.
Timeline
The story of Bjarne Stroustrup, told in moments.
Began developing "C with Classes" at Bell Labs. He wanted to add Simula-like features to C for his PhD research. It would evolve into C++.
Published The C++ Programming Language. The book sold millions of copies and defined the language for an entire generation of programmers. C++ ran operating systems, games, browsers, and financial systems.
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering. C++ was by then used in virtually every major software system on Earth. He quipped: "There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses."
In Their Own Words (20)
If you do anything useful it will haunt you forever after, and if you have a major success you get decades of hard manual labor — meaning you have to work on the manual.
"C++ Q&A Community Event with Bjarne Stroustrup" (27 August 2014) · 3m 20s, 2014
One of the things I really like about programming languages is that it's the perfect excuse to stick your nose into any field. So if you're interested in high energy physics and the structure of the universe, being a programmer is one of the best ways to get in there. It's probably easier than becoming a theoretical physicist.
"Bjarne Stroustrup - The Essence of C++" talk at the University of Edinburgh's George Square Lecture Theatre (28 April 2014), 2014
Maybe "just one little global variable" isn't too unmanageable, but that style leads to code that is useless except to its original programmer.
p. 467, 2013
Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost.
p. 693, 2013
An organisation that treats its programmers as morons will soon have programmers that are willing and able to act like morons only.
p. 713, 2013
Artifacts (15)
Chapman was actually a successful businessman. He bought many of the parcels of ...
... [He] wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot. Historian Paul Aron wrote, "Chapman was actually a successful businessman. He bought many of the parcels of land on...
We can hear him read now, just as he did that summer day, when we were busy quil...
achings to the adults, receiving in return a floor to sleep on for the night, and sometimes supper. Rice stated, "We can hear him read now, just as he did that summer day, when we were busy quilting...
[A]s a part of the celebration of Indiana's 100th birthday in 1916 an iron fence...
eyard with him. In 1934, a committee of the Johnny Appleseed Commission Council of the City of Fort Wayne reported, "[A]s a part of the celebration of Indiana's 100th birthday in 1916 an iron fence...
God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means o...
h answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterwards remarked, "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of...
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