Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!amdcad!sun!morocco!landauer
From: landauer@morocco.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: The name "C++" (was Re: C critisisms [sic])
Message-ID: <38415@sun.uucp>
Date: 11 Jan 88 06:44:35 GMT
References: <7597@sunybcs.UUCP> <1473@codas.att.com> <4559@teddy.UUCP> <8449@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: landauer@sun.UUCP (Doug Landauer)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
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KA> Why is it C++ instead of D or P?
JN> I thought that this pun was obvious:  C++:  the old value of C, and
JN> increment it as well.
PH> ... shouldn't it really be ++C then? Otherwise, the value (language?) 
PH> "returned" is still the old C :-)
BD>  Actually it should be ++C.  C++ means use the current value before 
BD> incrementing.  To be perverse, one could call Stroustrup's creation C++,C.

Dr Stroustrup addresses this question in his book "The C++ Programming
Language", in the "Notes to the reader" section (page 4):

    The name C++ is a quite recent invention (summer of 1983).  [ ... ]
    The name C++ was coined by Rick Mascitti.  The name signifies the
    evolutionary nature of the changes from C.  "++" is the C increment
    operator.  [ ... ] Connoisseurs of C semantics find C++ inferior to ++C.
    The language is not called D, since it is an extension of C and does
    not attempt to remedy problems by removing features.  For yet another
    interpretation of the name C++, see the appendix of Orwell [1984].

And, no, this needn't be cross-posted to the C++ newsgroup, where the
question has been asked & answered often.
--
	Doug Landauer				Sun Microsystems, Inc.
	ARPA Internet:	landauer@sun.com	Software Products Division
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