Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.c++
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From: bs@research.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup)
Subject: Re: Lisp versus C++ for AI. software
Message-ID: <DzBI0H.MyH@research.att.com>
Organization: AT&T Research, Murray Hill, NJ, USA
References: <53i5rv$jp2@Godzilla.cs.nwu.edu> <53rl90$f3q@nic.wat.hookup.net> <01bbb95d$74b5f700$31d8cac6@chico>
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 12:43:29 GMT
Lines: 29
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.lisp:23237 comp.lang.c++:219124


"Daniel Pflager" <dpflag@ix.netcom.com> writes:
 > 
 > > > ...
 > > >a day when they were the dominant languages, and C and Smalltalk (the
 > > >original source of the OOP ideas in C++) were funny little obscure
 > > 
 > > I always thaught C++'s OO concept was derived from Simula67
 > > 
 > 
 > In his book, The Design and Evolution of C++, Bjarne mentions lots of
 > influence from both these languages, but C++ seems to borrow more directly
 > from Simula than Smalltalk.
 > 
 > For example, C++'s inheritence mechanism is more similar to Simula than
 > Smalltalk.

Yes. For some reason, there is a tendency to exaggerate the influence of
Smalltalk on C++ (possibly because of the pure-OOP hype and the relative
obscurity of Simula).

I don't list Smalltalk among C++'s ancestor languages (see the chart on
page 6 of D&E) whereas C and Simula are listed as the primary and direct
ancestors. Simula provided my original inspiration in both the area of
language features and in the area of programming/design techniques.

	- Bjarne

Bjarne Stroustrup, AT&T Research, http://www.research.att.com/~bs/homepage.html
