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“Legacy code” often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.

Bjarne Stroustrup

Too many managers and executives try to reduce programming to a low-level assembly-line activity. That’s inefficient, wasteful, costly in the long run, and inhumane to programmers.
BJARNE STROUSTRUP

Insufficient Long Running Trying
Other programming languages constitute a mountain of ideas and inspiration-but it has to be mined carefully to avoid featurism and inconsistencies.
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Carefully Feaaturism Ideas Inconsistences Promoted
It is easy to study the rules of overloading and of templates without noticing that together they are one of the keys to elegant and efficient type-safe containers.
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Efficient Keys Safe Together
I assume that a sufficiently skilled will be able to do anything not explicitly forbidden by the hardware.
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Able Assuming Forbidden
Some software is actually pretty good, by any standard. Think of the Mars Rovers, Google, and the Human Genome Project. Now, that’s quality software!
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Google Quality Thinking
Most of the programmers in ten years will be us, and we won’t get much smarter.
BJARNE STROUSTRUP

Mathematics Science Years
Clearly, I reject the view that there is one way that is right for everyone and for every problem.
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Problem Views Way
My impression was and is that many programming languages and tools represent solutions looking for problems, and I was determined that my work should not fall into that category.
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Fall Inspiration Real
I would encourage nonproprietary standards for tools and libraries.
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Library Standard Tools
C++ is my favorite garbage collected language because it generates so little garbage
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Garbage Language Littles
“Legacy code” often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.
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Alternatives Code Legacy
People who passionately want to believe that the world is basically simple react to this with a fury that goes beyond what I consider appropriate for discussing a programming language.
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Believe Discussing People Simple
Destructors for virtual base classes are executed in the reverse order of their appearance in a depth-first left-to-right traversal of the directed acyclic graph of base classes.
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Class Depth Order
This evolution may compromise Java’s claim of being simpler than C++, but my guess is that the effort will make Java a better language than it is today.
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Effort Java May
Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost.
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Design Forget Lost
There’s an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.
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Stories Technology Wish
[Corporate programming] is often done to the point where the individual is completely submerged in corporate “culture” with no outlet for unique talents and skills.
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Outlet Practice Skills Unique
You can hide all kinds of clever and dirty code behind a good interface if you really need such code.
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Code Good Interface Need Really
Java isn’t platform independent; it is a platform
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Independent Java Platforms
Defining OO as based on the use of class hierarchies and virtual functions is also practical in that it provides some guidance as to where OO is likely to be successful.
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Class Function Hirerachies Successful Use
I do keep the main points straight in my head most of the time, and I do know where to find the details when I need them.
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Details Find Head Need
Certainly not every good program is object-oriented, and not every object-oriented program is good.
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Good Objects Program Very
However, when Java is promoted as the sole programming language, its flaws and limitations become serious.
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Java Language Serious
I like doing research that has an impact. If I went to a company to make what they call ‘real money,’ I’d be just trying to make a system work as fast as possible to meet the product and serice deadlines.
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Company Impact Possible Real Trying
Anybody who comes to you and says he has a perfect language is either naive or a salesman.
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Language Perfect Salesman
There are more useful systems developed in languages deemed awful than in languages praised for being beautiful – many more.
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Awful Beautiful Developed System
I find languages that support just one programming paradigm constraining
BJARNE STROUSTRUP

Language Programming Support

“Legacy code” often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.

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“Legacy code” often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.

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