Oral History of Bjarne Stroustrup

Video Description

Interviewed by Paul McJones, on February 5, 2015 in New York, New York, X7399.2015 © Computer History Museum Bjarne Stroustrup (born 30 December 1950) is a computer scientist who designed and evolved the C++ programming language, from an individual research project in the late 1970s, continuing to the present day as the internationally-standardized language that is ubiquitous in performance-critical systems and applications. The interview covers his youth, his education at the Aarhus University and the University of Cambridge, and his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Texas A&M University, and Morgan Stanley. It also covers his early experience with a variety of programming languages including Simula and BCPL. Finally, it focuses on his work on C++ and its predecessor C with Classes, including his goal of combining good abstraction mechanisms with direct access to the hardware. Specific language features discussed include value semantics, templates, concepts, the Standard Template Library, and highlights of the C++11 and C++14 standards. * Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102740024 Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection. Lot Number: X7399.2015 Catalog Number: 102740024