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Bjarne Stroustrups and More Problems With Programming
Phoe6 writes "As a follow up to the first part of his interview, Technology Review Magazine has another article running titled 'More Trouble with Programming'. Bjarne Stroustrup shares his point of view on good software, bad software design and aspect oriented programming." From the article: "Technology Review: Name the coolest and lamest programs ever written in C++, and say what worked and didn't work. Bjarne Stroustrup: Google! Can you even remember the world before Google? (It was only five years ago, after all.) What I like about Google is its performance under severe resource constraints. It possesses some really neat parallel and distributed algorithms. Also, the first Web browsers. Can you imagine the world without the Web? (It was only about 10 years ago.) Other programs that I find cool are examples of embedded-systems code: the scene-analysis and autonomous driving systems of the Mars Rovers, a fuel-injection control for a huge marine engine. There is also some really cool code in Photoshop's image processing and user interfaces."
No, he has nothing to do with computer science. Programming, yes, but computer science doesn't use C++.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Remember that you're talking about a guy who thinks that if something is designed correctly then it becomes stillborn.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
C++ is an inherently and unnecessary complex language, if you want to use some C inheritor for OO programming resort to Objective-C: it is a much simpler and cleaner "enhancement" of C instead of C++ which tries to kill many flies with one stroke (multiparadigm language). ObjC is essentially C + Smalltalk, you can learn it within one day if you already know C, just compare the number of pages of http://www.amazon.com/C++-Programming-Language-Spe cial-3rd/dp/0201700735 vs http://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-Programming- Evolutionary-Brad-Cox/dp/0201548348 . it's like in real live: the worse approach wins (Windows vs. Linux and so on). Good tutorial here: http://objc.toodarkpark.net/ . And by the way: the OpenStep Libs are to die for!
Bjarne Stroustrup is the problem with programming. C++ is probably the worst widely-used language design the industry has ever seen. And what makes it particularly insidious is that it seems useful and powerful, that is, people get started with it, like the raw power and performance they get, and often never figure out the profound problems the language has.
I think you're right, you have to know C or C++ intimately to be able to write correct code. C++ is a half-assed attempt to add modern features to C which results in an explosion in complexity. The thing is, C is not an easy language to program in because there is almost no protection against shooting yourself in the foot. Luckily C is pretty small and simple, and it is possible to understand the language well enough to be able to write a simple compiler after you've used it for a couple of years. Now C++ is pretty much impossible for one person to understand. Even the compiler writers find themselves struggling with the specification. If anyone still have doubts, have a look here http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_de fects.html for some eye-opening reading material...
The interactive way to Go -- http://www.playgo.to/iwtg/en/