2026-2027 DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES

Bjarne Stroustrup, Columbia University

21st Century C++

Abstract:

Abstract:
Why did C++ succeed on a massive scale without marketing or a rich owner? Its imminent death was frequently predicted even from before it was called C++. The reason is that C++ has some key C++ features that serve widespread needs, are manageable by “ordinary developers”, and are stable over decades.

Here, I present C++ as a coherent whole where strongly-typed generic programming has a central role, where code is presented as modules, resources are never leaked, and error-handling is systematic. Code written along these lines tend to be smaller, faster, more maintainable, and more reliable than code reflecting 20th-century thinking. The features I present are ISO standard C++ and shipping in major compilers. This style of C++ is a logical development of the foundational principles from the earliest days. I will briefly explain how to avoid getting stuck in 20th-century C++ and describe the plans for “Profiles” to manage the complexity accreted over decades of serious use. Along the way, I’ll try to put the evolution of C++ in its historical context.

Bio:
Bjarne Stroustrup is the designer and original implementer of C++ as well as the author of The C++ Programming Language (4th Edition), A Tour of C++ (3rd edition), Programming: Principles and Practice using C++ (3rd Edition), and many popular and academic publications. Dr. Stroustrup is a professor at Columbia University in New York City. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and an IEEE, ACM, and CHM fellow. He received the 2018 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the IEEE Computer Society's 2018 Computer Pioneer Award, and the 2017 IET Faraday Medal. His research interests include distributed systems, design, programming techniques, software development tools, and programming languages. He is actively involved in the ISO standardization of C++. He holds a masters in Mathematics from Aarhus University, where he is an honorary professor, and a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University, where he is an honorary fellow of Churchill College.