HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from Oral History of Bjarne Stroustrup Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Oral History of Bjarne Stroustrup

28 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
Cited on HN 4 times, 2015–2023, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters cite it as a primary source for why Stroustrup created C++, including combining C and Simula and the aim of zero-cost abstractions.

A two-hour Computer History Museum oral history interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, conducted by Paul McJones in 2015. It covers his youth, education at Aarhus and Cambridge, his career at Bell Labs and elsewhere, and the design and evolution of C++.

“Bjarne describes his goal for C++, which was abstractions with zero runtime cost” (HN, 2022)

4 citations · Interviews · intermediate

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@pjmlp Oct 2015 Cites it
on HN thread Is Java more secure than C?
Yeah, I should have let the "just" out. There are a whole class of errors caused by C's memory corruption "feature" that I can happily live without. C tosses safety away, because its designers were lazy to implement a proper compiler given what the computing world was doing outside AT&T. Bjarne wasn't also quite found of it, but he had to compromise to get adoption, given his employer. [this video]
Stroustrup's compromises with C given his employer.
@pjmlp Mar 2017 Cites it
on HN thread Rust's language ergonomics initiative
It is, after being forced to use BCPL to finish his PhD and being used to languages like Simula, Bjarne swore he wouldn't be doing that again. Hence why he started to design C with Classes after getting his job at AT&T. [this video] Around 29:00.
Stroustrup on why he started C with Classes.
@labrador Oct 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Why Rust?
In "Oral History of Bjarne Stroustrup" Bjarne describes his goal for C++, which was abstractions with zero runtime cost : [this video] I understand Rust is fast, but how does it do with complex abstractions?
Stroustrup describes the goal of abstractions with zero runtime cost.
@FrankyHollywood Jul 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Simula the Forgotten Programming Language
Stroustrup once told about how he needed the best of both C and Simula, which resulted in creating C++. Full interview: [this video]
Full interview about combining C and Simula to create C++.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close