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C++
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C++ /C'-pluhs-pluhs/ /n./ Designed by Bjarne Stroustrup
of AT&T Bell Labs as a successor to C. Now one of the
languages of choice, although many hackers still grumble that
it is the successor to either Algol 68 or Ada (depending on
generation), and a prime example of second-system effect.
Almost anything that can be done in any language can be done in
C++, but it requires a language lawyer to know what is and
what is not legal-- the design is *almost* too large to hold
in even hackers' heads. Much of the cruft results from C++'s
attempt to be backward compatible with C. Stroustrup himself has
said in his retrospective book "The Design and Evolution of
C++" (p. 207), "Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner
language struggling to get out." [Many hackers would now add
"Yes, and it's called Java" --ESR]
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