landauer@morocco.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer) (01/11/88)
KA> Why is it C++ instead of D or P?
JN> I thought that this pun was obvious: C++: the old value of C, and
JN> increment it as well.
PH> ... shouldn't it really be ++C then? Otherwise, the value (language?)
PH> "returned" is still the old C :-)
BD> Actually it should be ++C. C++ means use the current value before
BD> incrementing. To be perverse, one could call Stroustrup's creation C++,C.
Dr Stroustrup addresses this question in his book "The C++ Programming
Language", in the "Notes to the reader" section (page 4):
The name C++ is a quite recent invention (summer of 1983). [ ... ]
The name C++ was coined by Rick Mascitti. The name signifies the
evolutionary nature of the changes from C. "++" is the C increment
operator. [ ... ] Connoisseurs of C semantics find C++ inferior to ++C.
The language is not called D, since it is an extension of C and does
not attempt to remedy problems by removing features. For yet another
interpretation of the name C++, see the appendix of Orwell [1984].
And, no, this needn't be cross-posted to the C++ newsgroup, where the
question has been asked & answered often.
--
Doug Landauer Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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