Just for the sake of historicity for those less -- chronologically enhanced-- than RGB or myself, the joke is attributed to Stroustroup, not Thompson.
1. Ken Thompson wrote B (late 60's). Really minimal. Based largely on BCPL, but minimal, ergo "B". 2. Ken wrote Unix, in assembler. 3. Dennis Ritchie wrote C (sucessor to "B") to be usably featurefull (you can read the entire definition of B in a few minutes, at http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/kbman.html, which has been scanned and cleaned up since I last saw it). 4. Ken and Dennis rewrote unix together in C. (Torvalds ported the kernel to the x86 architecture, with an open license, unlike earlier ports; Pavel Curtis ported X, lots of people subsequently did too many too wonderful helpful things, etc) 5. Stroustrup wrote C++ (which in C means, "the sucessor of C", that is, the increment operator; so continues the joking naming convention). The name "C++" is something of a joke, and it's sorta funny that it's not "++C" (give you the value after incrementing, instead of before) and it is way more featureful than Ritchie's usablility requirement. As of C89 (I think) the // comment delimiter is in C; for awhile that whas the only thing in C++ we all gladly adopted when writing K&R C for a C++ compiler :-) Ritchie apologizes for omimtting //. Similarly, THompson apologizes for "creat" nomenclature. ("create"). I myself am glad to have functions (methods) associated with structures (classes), it's great organizationally. However, I have never writeen: cout << foo << '\n' and I never will, other than to illustrate what I don't do. I have no idea how that looks wholesome in Stoustrup's world view, definitely he has huge amounts of language-designer wisdom which I myself do not, but it's not necessary. stdio and stdlib are still there and they still work. Sometimes it takes me awhile to read someone else's C++, but sometimes it takes me awhile to read someone else's C, and sometimes it takes me a while to read my own :-) Neither language (or, neither subset) obliges clarity, and neither prevents it. Peter On 8/26/08, Robert G. Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tue, 26 Aug 2008, Kyle Spaans wrote: > > On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 09:22:39PM +0100, Alcides Simao wrote: >> >>> Isn't C++ a hoax? I mean, Ken Thompson admitted it was just a joke... >>> In paralell computing, it must be quite a BIG joke! >>> >> >> I sure hope not! The ``Parallel & Concurrent Programming'' class[1] at my >> school >> uses a language called uC++ to teach us concepts. I'll be taking the class >> in >> another year or so. >> >> [1] >> http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~cs343/<http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/%7Ecs343/> >> > > But wait, there is this: > > > http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Beowulf/c++_interview/c++_interview.html<http://www.phy.duke.edu/%7Ergb/Beowulf/c++_interview/c++_interview.html> > > which says it all, far better than I could ever say it...;-) > > rgb > > -- > Robert G. Brown Phone(cell): 1-919-280-8443 > Duke University Physics Dept, Box 90305 > Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 > Web: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb <http://www.phy.duke.edu/%7Ergb> > Book of Lilith Website: > http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Lilith/Lilith.php<http://www.phy.duke.edu/%7Ergb/Lilith/Lilith.php> > Lulu Bookstore: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=877977 > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf >
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