Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup
Bjarne Stroustrup
Born	December 30, 1950 (1950-12-30) Aarhus, Denmark
Occupation	College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science Professor, Texas A&M University
Known for	Creating C++
Website
Personal Page

Bjarne Stroustrup (Danish pronunciation: [ˈbjɑːnə ˈsdʁʌʊ̯ˀsdʁɔb]); born December 30, 1950 in Århus, Denmark) is a Danish computer scientist, most notable for the creation and the development of the widely used C++ programming language. He is currently Professor and holder of the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science at Texas A&M University.

Stroustrup began developing C++ in 1979 (then called "C with Classes"), and, in his own words, "invented C++, wrote its early definitions, and produced its first implementation... chose and formulated the design criteria for C++, designed all its major facilities, and was responsible for the processing of extension proposals in the C++ standards committee." Stroustrup also wrote what many consider to be the standard textbook for the language, The C++ Programming Language, which is now in its third edition. The text has been revised twice to reflect the evolution of the language and the work of the C++ standards committee.

In a 2010 interview with Big Think, Stroustrup stated that he felt C++'s predecessor language C was now obsolete, and also that the two languages (C and C++) should have been merged into one uniform language in which to program.

Education and academic work

Stroustrup has a master's degree in mathematics and computer science (1975) from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and a Ph.D. in computer science (1979) from the University of Cambridge, England, where he was a student at Churchill College. He was the head of AT&T Lab's Large-scale Programming Research department, from its creation until late 2002. Stroustrup was elected member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2004. He is a Fellow of the ACM (1994) and an IEEE Fellow. He currently works at Texas A&M University, United States, as a Distinguished Professor where he holds the College of Engineering Endowed Chair in Computer Science.

Awards

Bjarne Stroustrup giving a talk at Kent State University on C++0x in 2007.

• 1992 - ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award
• 2004 - IEEE Computer Society 2004 Computer Entrepreneur Award
• 2005 - William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
• 2008 - Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming award.

Books

• Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup - Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (December 29, 2008); ISBN 0-321-54372-1
• The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup - Addison-Wesley Pub Co; 3rd edition (February 15, 2000); ISBN 0-201-70073-5
• The Design and Evolution of C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup - Addison-Wesley Pub Co; 1st edition (March 29, 1994); ISBN 0-201-54330-3
• The Annotated C++ Reference Manual by Margaret A. Ellis & Bjarne Stroustrup - Addison-Wesley Pub Co; (January 1, 1990); ISBN 0-201-51459-1

External links

• Bjarne Stroustrup's homepage
• Bjarne Stroustrup's Texas A&M homepage
• Meet Bjarne Stroustrup (Video)
• List of interviews with Bjarne Stroustrup
• A hoax interview transcript with IEEE's Computer magazine.
• The real Stroustrup Interview with IEEE's Computer magazine, June 1998 (alternative)
• Computerworld Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup
• Bjarne Stroustrup's FAQ, Class