
Bjarne Stroustrup Awarded 2017 Faraday Medal - frostmatthew
https://www.cs.columbia.edu/2017/bjarne-stroustrup-awarded-2017-faraday-medal/
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urs2102
Took a class with him in college, perhaps one of the smartest people I've had
the opportunity to meet.

Nobody tells a story quite like Bjarne, and nothing beats the classes he would
open with a story straight out of Bell Labs. Him and his brilliant TA, David
(if you're reading this definitely send me a message!), were awesome in
showing not just how C++ has been built over the years, but how a steadfast
approach to building a culture focused on particular metrics was crucial to
C++'s development (and to the development of any other project as well).

Congratulations Bjarne; learned a lot about benchmarking from your class!

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Waterluvian
I love tech lore from the Bell Labs, PARC era. Wish I knew where to find them.
Computerphile on YouTube has some.

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StevenOtto
The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing
Personal by Mitchell Waldrop is a great book.

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jmcomets
At cppcon this morning he spent 10s expressing his gratitude, and followed up
with a talk on "Teaching Modern C++". In the talk, he explained how C++ needed
textbooks/teachers to focus on the message they're trying to pass to students,
because he believes that putting ideas in peoples heads is more important than
showing off new features.

Say what you want about modern C++, but Bjarne is an incredible person.

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hellofunk
> Say what you want about modern C++

Ok, if you want. Then I will.

Modern C++ is one of my favorite programming languages I've ever used. Some
years, I write it exclusively, others not so much. Depends on the work. But in
my memory I have a particularly fond spot for those periods in which I was
writing C++14.

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bluefox
I will always cherish reading The Design and Evolution of C++, even if I
stopped caring about C++ a decade ago or so.

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maxxxxx
That's an excellent book. I remember reading it without knowing much about C++
and at the end I had a pretty good idea why things work the thing they do. You
can debate about C++ in general but Stroustrup's writing is a big part of
C++'s success.

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roel_v
Of course his books and wider accomplishments show that he's very smart; he
manages to explain everything he writes about, in detail, with the least
amount of words necessary - no less, not more. In that sense, his books are a
bit like "The C Programming Language" \- concise, yet don't read as
'abbreviations'; but also complete, often answering the questions that pop
into your head as you're reading something in the next sentence.

But I only got a real appreciation for how much he truly 'masters' programming
from his description of an n-dimensional data structure in the 4th edition of
'The C++ Programming Language'. There, he transfers those qualities into
software design; very clearly laying out requirements, and writing a
beautifully concise implementation as he goes along. There is so much to be
learned from that chapter alone.

~~~
Bootvis
That sounds amazing, I need to buy and read that book!

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Insanity
Well deserved :-)

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MarkMMullin
First time I met him was at an OOPSLA conference when C++ was just starting to
get traction, while Smalltalk80 still ruled - so at the end, he's sagged back
against a pole and we're all excited, asking if this ain't just grand - his
response was priceless - 'It's terrible. Damn thing is too small to get any
money for and too big to kill."

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wiz21c
I remember to have interviewed him long time ago for a radio/tv show. Very
smart person, and kind too. By then I was very young so my questions were most
probably a bit dumb though (I think I even asked if C++ wasn't a bit "too
much" :-)) :-( I hope I didn't waste his time.

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pjmlp
Congratulations to Bjarne.

He is one of the reasons I keep liking C++, in spite of spending most of my
time in other languages.

Well deserved.

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ddavis
Congratulations to him! I can’t imagine how many people his ideas have
reached.

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AHASIC
Well deserved. His books on c++ are great and easy to consume, he is a great
writer as well.

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DonHopkins
Did they award him his own cage? ;)

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alexnewman
legit

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201709User
Well deserved! The complexity of language and resulting legacy codebases will
guarantee a safe job for another few generations at least.

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vbuwivbiu
one of the ugliest languages ever created

