" " (I mean quotes..)

Today I chanced upon reading a recent interview of Bjarne Stroustrup about the emerging standard for C++, named C++0x. I just skimmed through it, though noticed one interesting development. The type of a variable can now be deduced from the initializer. This uses the 'auto' keyword (it was there in C too, but did anybody use it?)

So you can write,
auto p = v.begin();
instead of
vector<string>::iterator p = v.begin();

I always disliked the second (and current) form, so I am quite happy that it can be avoided at least in some places. Bjarne also points out the 'overuse first and correct use later' transitions that new features seem to undergo. This seems true even for languages themselves.

Next, I pointed my browser to /. to see what the junta is saying, and it didn't disappoint me, I must say. A few gems..

C++ is to C as Lung Cancer is to Lung.

When C++ is your hammer, everything looks like a thumb.

C gives you enough rope to hang yourself. C++ gives you enough rope to hang yourself and every programmer who comes after you.

(It might be a good time to explicitly say that I am no C++ hater, I was a big C++ fan while in college (mostly because I had recently discovered STL), here however, I am just quoting /.)

It's fun. Longing for a bit more, I googled for 'C++ quotes' and stumbled upon this. Go read that page, it's really funny.

My favorite

One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.
-Robert Firth

And this one rings true..

COBOL was designed so that managers could read code.
BASIC was designed for people who are not programmers.
FORTRAN is for scientists.
ADA comes from a committee - a government committee no less.
PILOT is for teachers.
PASCAL is for students.
LOGO is for children.
APL is for Martians.
FORTH, LISP and PROLOG are specialty languages.
C, however, is for programmers.

-Al Stevens

Enjoy!!