The Design and Evolution of C++

The Design and Evolution of C++
Name	The Design and Evolution of C++
Author	Bjarne Stroustrup
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Computer programming, Programming language
Publisher	Addison-Wesley
Pub date	1994
Media type	Print
Pages	461
Isbn	0-201-54330-3

The Design and Evolution of C++ is a 1994 book by Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of the C++ programming language. Published by Addison-Wesley, the work provides a detailed historical and technical account of the language's development from its origins with C and Simula through its standardization by the ISO and the ANSI. The book is structured as a series of retrospectives on design decisions, offering insights into the philosophy and constraints that shaped the evolution of one of the world's most influential programming languages.

Origins and Early Development

The origins of C++ are traced to work begun by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs in 1979. Stroustrup's experience with the Simula language, while working on his PhD at the University of Cambridge, convinced him of the power of object-oriented programming but also of Simula's inefficiency for systems work. His goal was to add Simula-like features to the C language, which was renowned for its performance and use in projects like the Unix operating system. The initial implementation, called "C with Classes," began as a preprocessor called Cfront and was used internally at Bell Labs for projects such as network simulation. Key early influences included the work on ALGOL 68 and the writings of Christopher Strachey. The language was renamed C++ in 1983, with the first commercial release occurring outside AT&T in 1985.

Key Design Principles and Philosophy

Stroustrup outlines several governing principles in the book, which he adhered to during C++'s evolution. The central tenet was that C++ should be a "better C," maintaining compatibility with C while supporting data abstraction and object-oriented programming. This led to the "you don't pay for what you don't use" principle, ensuring that features like virtual functions incurred no overhead unless explicitly used. Other principles included supporting user-defined and built-in types equally, ensuring no implicit violation of the type system, and preferring static type checking to dynamic. The philosophy was pragmatic, favoring practical solutions that solved real problems for developers at organizations like IBM and Hewlett-Packard over theoretical purity.

Standardization and Language Evolution

The push for formal standardization began in 1989 with the establishment of an ANSI committee, which later collaborated with the ISO to form a joint working group. This process, detailed in the book, was a massive effort involving hundreds of committee members from companies like Microsoft, Borland, and Sun Microsystems. The first international standard, ISO/IEC 14882, was published in 1998 and is often called C++98. Stroustrup describes the tensions between preserving stability, adding major new features like the STL developed by Alexander Stepanov, and addressing issues raised by the C++ community. Subsequent standards, including C++11, C++14, and C++17, continued this evolution after the book's publication.

Major Language Features and Their Impact

The book chronicles the design and introduction of features that became central to C++. These include classes with constructors and destructors, virtual functions for dynamic polymorphism, and operator overloading. A significant chapter is devoted to templates, a generic programming feature whose power and complexity surprised even its designers and later enabled the STL. Other critical features discussed are exception handling, RTTI, and namespaces, each added to address specific problems like error management and name collisions in large projects at companies like Apple and Adobe.

Influence on Other Programming Languages

C++'s design has profoundly influenced subsequent programming languages. Java, developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, adopted a similar C-style syntax and object model but omitted features like operator overloading and multiple inheritance. C#, created by Anders Hejlsberg at Microsoft, also bears a strong resemblance, integrating concepts from C++ and Java. Even newer languages like D and Rust position themselves as successors or alternatives, addressing perceived flaws in C++'s design. The widespread adoption of C++ in critical systems, from the Google search engine to Autodesk software, cemented its paradigms as industry standards.

Criticisms and Controversies

Stroustrup openly addresses criticisms of C++ in the book, a practice that continued in his interactions with the ACM and other forums. Primary criticisms have centered on the language's complexity and perceived "bloat," with detractors like Donald Knuth expressing concerns. The inclusion of multiple inheritance was particularly controversial, with debates involving computer scientists like Andrew Koenig. Other points of contention included the initial lack of exception handling, the complicated rules for template instantiation, and the difficulty of achieving portability across different compilers from vendors like Borland and GCC. Stroustrup argues that many complexities are unavoidable for a language designed for high-performance, resource-constrained applications in fields like high-frequency trading and game development at companies like Electronic Arts.

Category:Computer science books Category:1994 non-fiction books Category:Books about programming languages Category:C++