Re: Language design by by committee ( was Re: Try J# ( was Re: J# is there ))

["David Thompson" <david.thompson1@worldnet.att.net>]

Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> wrote :
...
> Interestingly, C++'s development between 1990 and its standarization in 1998
> *does* seem to have been performed by committe. Actually, not just by *a*
> committe, but by a group of committees. (Stroustrup referred to them in his
book
> as "the joint C++ standard committees").
>
Most of my books are presently inaccessible so I can't check
the ones I think you are likely referring to, but I would bet what
he was talking about was that the international subcommittee
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 and the ANSI subcommittee X3J16
worked very closely together, including meeting at the same times
and places (although AIUI legally they can't actually meet jointly),
to ensure that when the ISO standard was adopted it would be
immediately approved without objections as an ANSI standard.
The C committees WG14 and J11 have been doing the same.

And although "development" is a (perhaps deliberately) vague term,
my recollection of D&E (= The Design & Evolution of C++, one of
the inaccessible books) is that essentially all of the core language
features are standardized as BS designed them -- based partly on
feedback from early users -- except for a few template things.
The standards committees certainly developed the _document_,
and in the process cleaned up some previously ignored nooks
and crannies, but did not make any significant changes in the
language.  They did make some, but still relatively minor,
changes in the STL before incorporating it into the standard.

Whether this was for good or ill, I make no claim.

--
- David.Thompson 1 now at worldnet.att.net