history c++

source : wikipedia
Stroustrup began work on C with Classes in 1979. The idea of creating a new language originated from Stroustrup's experience in programming for his Ph.D. thesis. Stroustrup found that Simula had features that were very helpful for large software development, but the language was too slow for practical use, while BCPL was fast but too low-level and unsuitable for large software development. When Stroustrup started working in Bell Labs, he had the problem of analyzing the UNIX kernel with respect to distributed computing. Remembering his Ph.D. experience, Stroustrup set out to enhance the C language with Simula-like features. C was chosen because it is general-purpose, fast, and portable. Besides C and Simula, some other languages which inspired him were ALGOL 68, Ada, CLU and ML. At first, the class, derived class, strong type checking, inlining, and default argument features were added to C via Cfront.

The first commercial release occurred in October 1985.
In 1983, the name of the language was changed from C with Classes to C++. New features were added including virtual functions, function name and operator overloading, references, constants, user-controlled free-store memory control, improved type checking, and a new single-line comment style with two forward slashes (//). In 1985, the first edition of The C++ Programming Language was released, providing an important reference to the language, as there was not yet an official standard. In 1989, Release 2.0 of C++ was released. New features included multiple inheritance, abstract classes, static member functions, const member functions, and protected members. In 1990, The Annotated C++ Reference Manual was published. This work became the basis for the future standard. Late addition of features included templates, exceptions, namespaces, new casts, and a Boolean type.
As the C++ language evolved, a standard library also evolved with it. The first addition to the C++ standard library was the stream I/O library which provided facilities to replace the traditional C functions such as printf and scanf. Later, among the most significant additions to the standard library, was the Standard Template Library.
After years of work, a joint ANSI- ISO committee standardized C++ in 1998 ( ISO/IEC 14882:1998). For some years after the official release of the standard in 1998, the committee processed defect reports, and published a corrected version of the C++ standard in 2003. In 2005, a technical report, called the " Library Technical Report 1" (often known as TR1 for short) was released. While not an official part of the standard, it gives a number of extensions to the standard library which are expected to be included in the next version of C++. Support for TR1 is growing in almost all currently maintained C++ compilers.
While the C++ language is royalty-free, the standard document itself is not freely available.
The name "C++"
This name is credited to Rick Mascitti (mid-1983) and was first used in December 1983. Earlier, during the research period, the developing language had been referred to as "new C", then " C with Classes". The final name stems from C's "++" operator (which increments the value of a variable) and a common naming convention of using "+" to indicate an enhanced computer program. According to Stroustrup: "the name signifies the evolutionary nature of the changes from C". C+ was the name of an earlier, unrelated programming language.
Stroustrup addressed the origin of the name in the preface of later editions of his book, The C++ Programming Language, adding that "C++" might be inferred from the appendix of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Of the three segments of the fictional language Newspeak, the "C vocabulary" is the one dedicated to technical terms and jargon. "Doubleplus" is the superlative modifier for Newspeak adjectives. Thus, "C++" might hold the meaning "most extremely technical or jargonous" in Newspeak.

When Rick Mascitti was questioned informally in 1992 about the naming, he indicated that it was given in a tongue-in-cheek spirit. He never thought that it would become the formal name of the language.
Future development
C++ continues to evolve to meet future requirements. One group in particular, Boost.org, works to make the most of C++ in its current form and advises the C++ standards committee as to which features work well and which need improving. Current work indicates that C++ will capitalize on its multi-paradigm nature more and more. The work at Boost, for example, is greatly expanding C++'s functional and metaprogramming capabilities. A new version of the C++ standard is currently being worked on, entitled "C++0X" (denoting the fact it is expected to be released before 2010) which will include a number of new features