On C++: Straight from the master himself

[ramnik]

I found an interview Bjarne Stroustrup gave for IEEE over 10 years back on C++. Stroustrup in his own words, "invented C++, wrote its early definitions, and produced its first implementation... chose and formulated the design criteria for C++, designed all its major facilities, and was responsible for the processing of extension proposals in the C++ standards committee" [source: wiki]

http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/Invention_of_Cplusplus.shtml

Excerpts from the Interview

Everyone was writing 'C' and,the trouble was, they were pretty damn good at it.
Universities got pretty good at teaching it, too. They were turning out competent
- I stress the word 'competent' - graduates at a phenomenal rate.
That's what caused the problem.

And the best!

Well, one day, when I was sitting in my office, I
thought of this little scheme, which would redress
the balance a little. I thought 'I wonder what
would happen, if there were a language so complicated,
so difficult to learn, that nobody would ever be able
to swamp the market with programmers?

I love these guys. =D>

 

[atreides]

Met the man while I was at Texas A&M, Never really got to take any classes from him as he taught mostly grad level CS/CE courses. It's good to know that computing 'greats' like Him can be so accessible..great personality too..

 

[Roger Trimble]

This looks like something you could read in The Onion.