By now, C++ is a language with a long history. This leads many people to overlook decades of progress and describe C++ as if today was still the second millennium where phones had to be plugged into the wall to function and most code was low-level and slow. Here, I present C++ as a coherent whole where strongly-typed generic programming has a central role, where code is presented as modules, resources are never leaked, and error-handling is systematic. Code written along these lines tend to be smaller, faster, more maintainable, and more reliable that code reflecting 20th century thinking. The features I present are ISO standard C++ and shipping in major compilers. This style of C++ is a logical development of the foundational principles from the earliest days. For completeness, I will briefly mention the roots of the modern facilities presented, the key role of facilities for low-level code, and the essential role of stability/compatibility in long-term use of the language.

Bjarne Stroustrup is the designer and original implementer of C++ as well as the author of The C++ Programming Language (4th Edition), A Tour of C++ (3rd edition), Programming: Principles and Practice using C++ (2nd Edition), and many popular and academic publications. Dr. Stroustrup is a professor at Columbia University in New York City. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and an IEEE, ACM, and CHM fellow. He received the 2018 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the IEEE Computer Society’s 2018 Computer Pioneer Award, and the 2017 IET Faraday Medal. His research interests include distributed systems, design, programming techniques, software development tools, and programming languages. He is actively involved in the ISO standardization of C++. He holds a masters in Mathematics from Aarhus University, where he is an honorary professor, and a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University, where he is an honorary fellow of Churchill College. Personal website: www.Stroustrup.com.