A large crowd roamed the East end of HKU campus last week as one of computer science’s luminary figures showed up to give a public lecture. The lecture was on the topic of C++, and who would be more fitting to give it than the C++’s creator himself!? Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup, now a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, presented for 1.5 hours clearly demonstrating C++ is still alive and kicking. As a matter of fact, after all these years with so many new programming languages coming on board, C++ still ranks as one of the most popular and most heavily used languages. Many of us indeed felt very much uplifted when hearing that further development/betterment of C++ is still actively going on. The talk ended in cheers, and many couldn’t wait to leap onto stage to get an autograph, and many selfies taken. Considering the fact that the top programming languages like C++ have literally shaped our world (imagine the amount of software written), we owe this legendary man a big thank-you.
As a small token for that gratitude, Prof Francis Lau, Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean of Engineering, presented Dr. Stroustrup a limited edition HKU Centennial Tie made by the "HKU Tartan" that carried with it our wish that with Dr. Stroustrup’s continued effort, the C++ language will get better and better for many years to come.
This lecture on "C++ Now and Tomorrow" by Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup, which was held on October 25, 2017 at the Yuet Ming Auditorium in HKU, was jointly presented by Morgan Stanley and the Department of Computer Science of HKU. It attracted a full house of 400 audience, and another 40 participants were watching live broadcast at the foyer outside the Auditorium.