Overload 21 Editorial – ACCU Conference
ACCU Conference
Last month’s highlight was the ACCU conference in Oxford. I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism with which it was pulled off. Compared to the usual corporate junkets this represented real value for money. There’s a full review from Ray Hall in the News Section, so I won’t say too much – except to report a few amusing asides.
Bjarne gave a presentation on Friday about various approaches to class design. He talked a lot about the benefits of abstract interfaces, without once mentioning COM, and a bit about the new paradigm of generic programming, without ever mentioning the STL.
He also talked about the design and evolution of C++ on Saturday morning. He used the metaphor of the craftsman’s toolbox for C++: it contains a wide variety of tools, some of which are only suitable for expert use. Of course the people who don’t know how to use the more advanced tools still like to have them in their own toolbox, but mainly just for show. He contrasted this with other languages which attempt to adopt a simpler approach but which are inevitably limited in the areas in which they can be used, at least until they are expanded – he raised a lot of laughter when he said that the Nutshell guide to Java is now 670 pages long.
He was most enlightening when taking questions from the floor. He managed to expound insights from even the most simple of questions. In response to the query ‘How do you feel about and const and mutable relationship?’ He paused to consider, and thoughtfully stated, ‘I have nothing to say about mutable. Next question please.’
Me & Bjarne
The day before the conference I discovered that Bjarne and myself are best mates – Well actually we’re just working together – Well actually my current employer, Octel, just got bought by AT&T – Well actually it was Lucent, but they used to be part of AT&T. So Bjarne and myself are almost best mates. Just as well I didn’t stagger up to him on Friday evening and inform him of this exciting news.
John Merrells
(Almost a Bell Labs Engineer)
August 1997
