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."

Comments

Re:There are very few cool C(++) programs out ther

[igomaniac]

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...