Bulldozer00's Blog

When a large group or committee is tasked with designing a complex system from scratch, or evolving an existing one, I always think of these timeless quotes from Fred Brooks:

“A design flows from a chief designer, supported by a design team, not partitioned among one.” – Fred Brooks

“The entire system also must have conceptual integrity, and that requires a system architect to design it all, from the top down.” – Fred Brooks

“Who advocates … for the product itself—its conceptual integrity, its efficiency, its economy, its robustness? Often, no one.” – Fred Brooks

“A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software systems have been designed by committees and built as part of multi-part projects, those software systems that have excited passionate fans are those that are the products of one or a few designing minds, great designers.” – Fred Brooks

Note Fred’s correlation between “conceptual integrity” and the individual (or small group) for success.

C++ is a large, sprawling, complex, programming language. With the next language specification update due to be ratified by the ISO C++ committee in 2017, Bjarne Stroustrup (the original, one-man, creator and curator of C++) felt the need to publish a passionate plea admonishing the committee to “stop the insanity“: Thoughts About C++17.

By reminding the committee members of the essence of what uniquely distinguishes C++ from its peers, Bjarne is warning against the danger of annihilating the language’s conceptual integrity. The center must hold!

 It seems to be a popular pastime to condemn C++ for being a filthy mess caused by rampant design-by-committee. This has been suggested repeatedly since before the committee was founded, but I feel it is now far worse. Adding a lot of unrelated features and library components will do much to add complexity to the language, making it scarier to both novices and “mainline programmers”. What I do not want to try to do:
• Turn C++ into a radically different language
• Turn parts of  C++ into a much higher-level language by providing a segregated sub-language
• Have C++ compete with every other language by adding as many as possible of their features
• Incrementally modify C++ to support a whole new “paradigm”
• Hamper C++’s use for the most demanding systems programming tasks
• Increase the complexity of C++ use for the 99% for the benefit of the 1% (us and our best friends).

Like all the other C++ committee members, Bjarne is a really, really, smart guy. For the decades that I’ve followed his efforts to evolve and improve the language, Bjarne has always expressed empathy for “the little people“; the 99% (of which I am a card-carrying member).

In a world in which the top 1% doesn’t seem to give a shit about the remaining 99%, it’s always refreshing to encounter a 1 percenter who cares deeply about the other 99 percenters. And THAT, my dear reader, is what has always endeared Mr. Bjarne Stroustrup to me.

I am often asked – often by influential and/or famous people – if I am planning a D&E2 (The Design And Evolution Of C++ version 2). I’m not, I’m too busy using and improving C++. However, should I ever find it convenient to semi-retire, D&E2 would be a great project. However, I could do that if and only if I could honestly write it without condemning the language or my friends. We need to ship something we can be proud of and that we can articulate.

W00t! I didn’t know I was influential and/or famous: And In The Beginning.