Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup is a computer scientist known as the inventor of the C++ programming language. Stroustrup is currently a Professor at Texas A&M; University and holder of the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science.

Fast Facts

1. Born: December 30, 1950
2. Birthplace: Aarhus, Denmark
3. In 1990, his "Annotated C++ Reference Manual" received Dr. Dobb's "Jolt Cola" award for excellence in technical documentation
4. He was elected member of The National Academy of Engineering in 2004 "for the creation of the C++ programming language"
5. In 2005 he won the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
6. In his book "The Design and Evolution of C++", he claims that 19th century philosopher Kierkegaard was an influence upon his conception of the language
7. Name pronounced "B-yar-ne Strov-stroop"

Quote

"Naturally. I'm very happy with the way it allows me to write programs that are simultaneously elegant and efficient. I'm also quite proud of its widespread use. That said, I don't claim that C++ is perfect. There is a lot of really horrible C++ code out there, because many programmers haven't learned to use C++ well. I encourage people to look at my home pages, papers and books for ideas about how to improve their code. My impression is that most C++ code could have been much cleaner, maintainable and efficient than it is had the designers and programmers understood up-to-date C++ features and techniques. Standard C++ really does make possible programming techniques that were infeasible ten years ago. Unfortunately, many are constrained or feel constrained to use C++ as it stood ten years ago, or they simply use it as a better C." Bjarne Stroustrup via Linux Journal

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