Bookshelf Classic: The Design and Evolution of C++

-
Stroustrup
There was a time when I put a corporate seal on my favorite books.  Dr. Stroustrup noticed the embossed seal, ran his fingers over it, and remarked "nice" as he signed my copy.


The book was  published circa 1994, and Stroustrup was on hand to give a talk to an eager C++ user group.


While the book describes the early evolution of C++ -- the proposals, the decisions, the trade-offs, and the mistakes -- it is in the early sections where we learn most about the author.  Stroustrup writes:


"It is often claimed that the structure of a system reflects the structure of the organization that created it.  Within reason, I subscribe to that idea."


In my years of programming and working with management, I have found this to be very true.  This was Stroustrup's way of saying the C++ language is largely shaped by who he is.  While it's no surprise he has advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science, we learn that his hobbies include history and philosophy.  Describing Kierkegaard as appealing and Hegel as grandiose, Stroustrup steered C++ toward the individual and the practical, and away from the abstract and the ideal.


"Many C++ design decisions have their roots in my dislike for forcing people to do things in some particular way."


And sure enough, when a member of the audience raised his hand and proposed a particular feature for the language, Stroustrup recommended it be implemented in a library.


It has been a long time since I last opened this book, and I rediscovered a yellow sticky note on Chapter 8: Libraries.  Recalling the moment, I had sought guidance in creating a library to encapsulate threading.  Stroustrup led with a quote from Kierkegaard:


"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."


I didn't fully understand then, but it meant I couldn't completely know what I needed from a pthread library until after I had written it.  And that it follows I would have to return to it and rework it.


I am happy to say that I did produce a pthread library for Unix which was published in Doctor Dobb's Source Book July/August 1995:






In addition, I reworked the library to support the Windows NT threading model which appeared in Dr. Dobb's Journal December 1996:






Given that "TDE of C++" is from 1994 while the current C++ standard is from 2014, it can't, in a manner of speaking, make you a better language lawyer.  It can, however, make you a better judge. By providing some history and context surrounding C++, the book can make you a more thoughtful, more insightful, programmer.


Update 10/25/19: My thread articles and source code are no longer available at the DDJ website, so I have deleted the links.  For posterity, I have posted copies of the first page of each article instead.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bookshelf: UNIX A History and a Memoir

-
Image
  A man page will give you, in black and white, specific information about UNIX. Brian Kernighan's new book adds color and depth about UNIX you won't find anywhere else. I'm not a gray beard (yet), but I imagine they would plow through the book knowingly, but at the same time, learn a few things. Those new to UNIX -- recent college grads or those experimenting with Raspberry Pi -- would be better off starting with Chapter 8 which describes more relatable events and the descendants of UNIX, including Minux and Linux. It's when they start to ask questions like "Where does UNIX come from?" and "Why is Gamora grep?" that they should start from the beginning: Bell Labs, 1969. Kernighan opens with a birds-eye-view of Murray Hill New Jersey, zooms in on the buildings, the offices, the significance of Center 1127, and offers a brief look at some of the key players there. As I progressed through the book, the two factors that made UNIX not just possible, bu
Read more

Bookshelf Classic: The C Programming Language

-
Image
My first job had me programming in Microsoft BASIC for the IBM PC (DOS).  BASIC worked well enough, but its limitations were clear.  The language was interpreted and therefore slow.  More importantly, it wasn't a modern structured language, and instead, relied on line numbers and the GOTO statement.  Anyone who has read Dijkstra knew  GOTO was a bad thing . Having learned a structured language in college ( PL/I ), using BASIC felt unnatural.  When a C compiler became available for the PC, I saw a chance to improve and modernize our software.  The problem was selling the idea -- a problem made harder because I wasn't fluent in C. "It would be a staffing problem.  Not many people know C, but we can find a lot of programmers who know BASIC," noted one manager. The argument was strong as my knowledge of C was weak.  But I knew that C, by design, was a small language and thus easy to learn.  "It has about 30 keywords," I proffered to another manager. U
Read more

Connections

-
Image
Opening a drawer in my hotel room in Toronto, I found this.  I worship at the altar of tech, but I imagine the reaction between two priests might go like this: Mormon Priest:  "At least we're wireless!" Catholic Priest: "And from the very beginning too!"
Read more