22. Ideals and History
“When someone says,‘I want a programming languagein which I need only say what I wish done,’give him a lollipop.”
—Alan Perlis
This chapter is a very brief and very selective history of programming languages and the ideals they have been designed to serve. The ideals and the languages that express them are the basis for professionalism. Because C++ is the language we use in this book, we focus on C++ and languages that influenced C++. The aim is to give a background and a perspective to the ideas presented in this book. For each language, we present its designer or designers: a language is not just an abstract creation, but a concrete solution designed by individuals in response to problems they faced at the time.
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