5 ms·

Bjarne Stroustrup Awarded 2017 Faraday Medal

271 points by frostmatthew 9y ago

Insanity 9y ago
Well deserved :-)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
ddavis 9y ago
Congratulations to him! I can’t imagine how many people his ideas have reached.
urs2102 9y ago
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!
- Waterluvian 9y ago
  I love tech lore from the Bell Labs, PARC era. Wish I knew where to find them. Computerphile on YouTube has some.
  - mhh__ 9y ago
    Bjarne himself has written/spoke about that era quite a lot, I can't direct you into anything specific but he usually weaves a lot of tidbits from the past into his talks.
  - StevenOtto 9y ago
    The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Mitchell Waldrop is a great book.
  - arkx 9y ago
    "Dealers of Lightning" by Michael Hiltzik was an excellent book on Xerox PARC. I haven't yet read "The Idea Factory" by Jon Gertner, which covers Bell Labs.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
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- davidlee1435 9y ago
  I remember how ridiculously long the waitlist was for that class, even for a course in the CS division. Really hoping he teaches it again next spring.
  - krat0sprakhar 9y ago
    Haha! Don't let that deter you from attending the lectures! I unfortunately didn't get past the waitlist but was still able to attend the lectures and learn a lot. It was an absolute delight to learn from Prof Stroustrup!
    - urs2102 9y ago
      Good to see you here (again) Prakhar! Didn't know you audited Prof. Stroustrup's class. If I can recommend a project for the HN community to check out, it's krat0sprakhar's JSJS project. One of the prettiest projects I've seen in my time at college as well [0]. [0]: https://prakhar.me/projects/ https://prakhar.me/projects/
    - koolba 9y ago
      You deliberately caused a potential buffer overflow?
      - sun_n_surf 9y ago
        Ba dum tiss
        DonHopkins 9y ago
        Bjarne is a defensive lecturer so he always allocates a few extra safety seats.
- senex 9y ago
  This is really interesting. What kind of metrics is the culture focused on? How were they established. Can you think of examples when critical/deliberate decisions were made to pursue the integrity of the culture (rather than shifting or broadening focus)? Has cultural orientation or measurements changed over time? How and why? Are there other examples of cultures focused on particular metrics that have flourished? Or faded away? Super curious...
  - urs2102 9y ago
    So there are a number of examples, but Bjarne used to stress 'compatibility' for example. It was a really important idea for him, that despite the really clean and smaller language that he could have developed, it was very important for him to have tighter compatibility with C. In many ways, he discussed how he hasn't built a 'perfect language', and that as languages operate as tools, it's very important to be focused and decide what matters over what doesn't. Sure you could have a prettier language, but as programmers there is a cost to everything and sometimes we are so eager to see the benefits in any new tool, it's easy to forget to measure the costs (he also really, really enjoyed having us benchmark things to see the cost in using x method over y method). Making it explicitly clear what you intend to focus on, and setting a standard for not just yourself, but your community encourages the language to grow in a way that it remains useful and sustainable. He mentioned that if he built out this tighter/cleaner language, it's also possible that the language would have failed to generate any traction at all. I'm not entirely sure of cultures that have flourished or faded particular ideas, but if you look at how despite newer languages are constantly taking old ideas from Lisp, how come Lisp didn't take off (and I say this as a true fan of Lisp)? Again, I'm totally hypothesizing, but it may have to do with compatibility. You can say that Lisp's syntax (or lack thereof) is really important to not just how macros are developed, but for Lisp programmers to have a language that evolves. Yet at the same time, Lisp's greatest strength is often its biggest weakness. You can't really standardize something that evolves all the time, and as such, can't really have compatability. How do I build a library for a language that despite becoming more powerful for the particular purpose I started using it for, looks nothing like anything else out there? I think his main point tended to be, pick things that matter to you: metrics that matter to you, ideas that matter to you, a mission that matters to you and just really work on that. It's easy to get distracted and just add features "just because", but make sure they conform to the metrics you set forth for yourself.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  I forgave him for all his sins when he proved how well he could make fun of himself: http://www.stroustrup.com/whitespace98.pdf http://www.stroustrup.com/whitespace98.pdf
  - kiddico 9y ago
    I got a good laugh out of that, thanks. I hope that you can't actually overload whitespace... I need to go try this. edit: you cannot, I am equally disappointed and relieved.
snookiebear 9y ago
"these top-gun developers are so expert in their language, they tend to write code that looks like ancient runes and forbidden arcanes. You can’t figure what it does just by reading it, but it works, just like a magic incantation" https://incise.co/what-wrong-with-c/ https://incise.co/what-wrong-with-c/
bluefox 9y ago
I will always cherish reading The Design and Evolution of C++, even if I stopped caring about C++ a decade ago or so.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  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.
jmcomets 9y ago
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.
- hellofunk 9y ago
  > 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.
alexnewman 9y ago
legit
pjmlp 9y ago
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.
wiz21c 9y ago
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.
201709User 9y ago
Well deserved! The complexity of language and resulting legacy codebases will guarantee a safe job for another few generations at least.
DonHopkins 9y ago
Did they award him his own cage? ;)
vbuwivbiu 9y ago
one of the ugliest languages ever created
roel_v 9y ago
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 9y ago
  That sounds amazing, I need to buy and read that book!
AHASIC 9y ago
Well deserved. His books on c++ are great and easy to consume, he is a great writer as well.
MarkMMullin 9y ago
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."

271 points by frostmatthew 9y ago

Insanity 9y ago

Well deserved :-)

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

ddavis 9y ago

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

urs2102 9y ago

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!

Waterluvian 9y ago
I love tech lore from the Bell Labs, PARC era. Wish I knew where to find them. Computerphile on YouTube has some.
- mhh__ 9y ago
  Bjarne himself has written/spoke about that era quite a lot, I can't direct you into anything specific but he usually weaves a lot of tidbits from the past into his talks.
- StevenOtto 9y ago
  The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by Mitchell Waldrop is a great book.
- arkx 9y ago
  "Dealers of Lightning" by Michael Hiltzik was an excellent book on Xerox PARC. I haven't yet read "The Idea Factory" by Jon Gertner, which covers Bell Labs.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
davidlee1435 9y ago
I remember how ridiculously long the waitlist was for that class, even for a course in the CS division. Really hoping he teaches it again next spring.
- krat0sprakhar 9y ago
  Haha! Don't let that deter you from attending the lectures! I unfortunately didn't get past the waitlist but was still able to attend the lectures and learn a lot. It was an absolute delight to learn from Prof Stroustrup!
  - urs2102 9y ago
    Good to see you here (again) Prakhar! Didn't know you audited Prof. Stroustrup's class. If I can recommend a project for the HN community to check out, it's krat0sprakhar's JSJS project. One of the prettiest projects I've seen in my time at college as well [0]. [0]: https://prakhar.me/projects/ https://prakhar.me/projects/
  - koolba 9y ago
    You deliberately caused a potential buffer overflow?
    - sun_n_surf 9y ago
      Ba dum tiss
      - DonHopkins 9y ago
        Bjarne is a defensive lecturer so he always allocates a few extra safety seats.
senex 9y ago
This is really interesting. What kind of metrics is the culture focused on? How were they established. Can you think of examples when critical/deliberate decisions were made to pursue the integrity of the culture (rather than shifting or broadening focus)? Has cultural orientation or measurements changed over time? How and why? Are there other examples of cultures focused on particular metrics that have flourished? Or faded away? Super curious...
- urs2102 9y ago
  So there are a number of examples, but Bjarne used to stress 'compatibility' for example. It was a really important idea for him, that despite the really clean and smaller language that he could have developed, it was very important for him to have tighter compatibility with C. In many ways, he discussed how he hasn't built a 'perfect language', and that as languages operate as tools, it's very important to be focused and decide what matters over what doesn't. Sure you could have a prettier language, but as programmers there is a cost to everything and sometimes we are so eager to see the benefits in any new tool, it's easy to forget to measure the costs (he also really, really enjoyed having us benchmark things to see the cost in using x method over y method). Making it explicitly clear what you intend to focus on, and setting a standard for not just yourself, but your community encourages the language to grow in a way that it remains useful and sustainable. He mentioned that if he built out this tighter/cleaner language, it's also possible that the language would have failed to generate any traction at all. I'm not entirely sure of cultures that have flourished or faded particular ideas, but if you look at how despite newer languages are constantly taking old ideas from Lisp, how come Lisp didn't take off (and I say this as a true fan of Lisp)? Again, I'm totally hypothesizing, but it may have to do with compatibility. You can say that Lisp's syntax (or lack thereof) is really important to not just how macros are developed, but for Lisp programmers to have a language that evolves. Yet at the same time, Lisp's greatest strength is often its biggest weakness. You can't really standardize something that evolves all the time, and as such, can't really have compatability. How do I build a library for a language that despite becoming more powerful for the particular purpose I started using it for, looks nothing like anything else out there? I think his main point tended to be, pick things that matter to you: metrics that matter to you, ideas that matter to you, a mission that matters to you and just really work on that. It's easy to get distracted and just add features "just because", but make sure they conform to the metrics you set forth for yourself.
DonHopkins 9y ago
I forgave him for all his sins when he proved how well he could make fun of himself: http://www.stroustrup.com/whitespace98.pdf http://www.stroustrup.com/whitespace98.pdf
- kiddico 9y ago
  I got a good laugh out of that, thanks. I hope that you can't actually overload whitespace... I need to go try this. edit: you cannot, I am equally disappointed and relieved.

snookiebear 9y ago

"these top-gun developers are so expert in their language, they tend to write code that looks like ancient runes and forbidden arcanes. You can’t figure what it does just by reading it, but it works, just like a magic incantation" https://incise.co/what-wrong-with-c/ https://incise.co/what-wrong-with-c/

bluefox 9y ago

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

maxxxxx 9y ago
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.

jmcomets 9y ago

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.

hellofunk 9y ago
> 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.

alexnewman 9y ago

legit

pjmlp 9y ago

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.

wiz21c 9y ago

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.

201709User 9y ago

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

DonHopkins 9y ago

Did they award him his own cage? ;)

vbuwivbiu 9y ago

one of the ugliest languages ever created

roel_v 9y ago

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 9y ago
That sounds amazing, I need to buy and read that book!

AHASIC 9y ago

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

MarkMMullin 9y ago

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."