So 25 years ago, on October 14th 1985, a little known programming language called C++ was released to the world. Since then it has been the cause of many arguments, mostly around complexity, efficiency and the differences between procedural and object-orientated languages. Say what you will but for a language to still be in as much use as it is now (and currently at number 3 in the tiobe index) is for me at least incredible. Admittedly the fact that 'C' is still in wide spread use since it's first appearance back in 1972 is simply astounding but I don't think that should detract from the C++ success.
So when C++ was released commercially I was 5 years old, playing with friends with much fewer cares in the world. I might have been aware of computers but possibly didn't care as much, I do remember that doors opening by themselves was kind of amazing still! And here 25 years later I'm using a programming language which is almost as old as I am day in and day out to earn my living. Sure it may not be as pretty as some languages, or as expressive, you have to consider memory and resources and doing some basic stuff like sending data over the internet is a lot harder work, but I quite like it. It's a challenge and in these days of automatic garbage collection considering memory and resources is quite refreshing and it makes you consider how wasteful some modern languages and frameworks are.
So happy 25th birthday C++, here's looking forward to the next 25.
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