From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID
	autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 109fba,b87849933931bc93
X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public
X-Google-Thread: fac41,b87849933931bc93
X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public
X-Google-Thread: f43e6,b87849933931bc93
X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public
X-Google-Thread: 103376,b87849933931bc93
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93
X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public
X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93
X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public
From: Matt Austern <austern@isolde.mti.sgi.com>
Subject: Re: What is wrong with OO ?
Date: 1997/01/03
Message-ID: <fxtu3oysbzp.fsf@isolde.mti.sgi.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 207534460
references: <5acjtn$5uj@news3.digex.net> <JSA.97Jan1181506@alexandria>
organization: SGI
newsgroups: 
 comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.object,comp.software-eng
Date: 1997-01-03T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


jsa@alexandria (Jon S Anthony) writes:

> Oh, I don't know.  I think C++ was created simply because BS was
> saddled with C (at ATT) and wanted _something_ that had a least _some_
> abstraction capabilities in it.  Voila.  C++.  Whether it is any more
> "usable" than several other options is highly open to question.  And
> in fact, in general I would say the answer is "no".

It's not necessary to speculate on why Bjarne Stroustrup made the
design decisions that he did: he discusses them, in a fair amount
of detail, in _The Design and Evolution of C++_.

I probably shouldn't try to summarize an entire book in a single
sentence.  One thing he makes very clear in his book, though, is that
he was trying to create a language that, like C, made it possible to
write low-level programs, but that also, like Simula, included
high-level abstraction facilities.  

This combination is, if not unique to C++, at least rare.  It's also
quite clear that it was a design goal from the very beginning.