Bjarne Stroustrup quotes

Bjarne Stroustrup is a Danish computer scientist, renowned as the creator of the C++ programming language. His work has profoundly influenced modern software development and programming languages. He continues to contribute to computer science through research, teaching, and writing. Here are 45 of his quotes:

Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost. (Bjarne Stroustrup)
An organisation that treats its programmers as morons will soon have programmers that are willing and able to act like morons only. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
Anybody who comes to you and says he has a perfect language is either naïve or a salesman. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
"How to test?" is a question that cannot be answered in general. "When to test?" however, does have a general answer: as early and as often as possible. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
If you think it's simple, then you have misunderstood the problem. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
A program that has not been tested does not work. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
There are more useful systems developed in languages deemed awful than in languages praised for being beautiful - many more. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
Proof by analogy is fraud. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
"Legacy code" often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling. (Bjarne Stroustrup)
[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. Corporate practices can be directly hostile to individuals with exceptional skills and initiative in technical matters. I consider such management of technical people cruel and wasteful. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
I do not think that safety should be bought at the cost of complicating the expression of good solutions to real-life problems. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
Far too often, "software engineering" is neither engineering nor about software. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
The connection between the language in which we think/program and the problems and solutions we can imagine is very close. For this reason restricting language features with the intent of eliminating programmer errors is at best dangerous. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
Maybe "just one little global variable" isn't too unmanageable, but that style leads to code that is useless except to its original programmer. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we don't. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
One of the things I really like about programming languages is that it's the perfect excuse to stick your nose into any field. So if you're interested in high energy physics and the structure of the universe, being a programmer is one of the best ways to get in there. It's probably easier than becoming a theoretical physicist. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
The standard library saves programmers from having to reinvent the wheel. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
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. (Bjarne Stroustrup)
However, when Java is promoted as the sole programming language, its flaws and limitations become serious. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
After all, C++ isn't a perfect match for Java's design aims either. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
If you do anything useful it will haunt you forever after, and if you have a major success you get decades of hard manual labor - meaning you have to work on the manual. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup
Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language struggling to get out. View quote
Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup - Image
Photo: Wikimedia commons, GFDL
Occupation: Danish Scientist
Born: December 30, 1950
Quotes count: 45
Wikipedia: Bjarne Stroustrup

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