Like many a refugee of the 1960s, I keep a copy of Desiderata pasted to the wall. Rare is the day when it doesn't have some piece of advice to keep me more or less sane and centered. The sentence that catches my eye most often these days is, "Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth."No, this isn't another of my depressing editorials, although I have been feeling my age more than usual lately. My 50th birthday is rapidly approaching. I have a growing list of ailments and infirmities that slow me down. And I definitely lack the energy that I once squandered so happily writing computer programs and related text. For all that, my life is about as serene as I could hope, given advancing middle age.
It's the "gracefully surrendering" part that I'm working on. Two editorials back (CUJ June 1993) I welcomed the growing contributions to this magazine by Dan Saks in explaining C++ to our readership. I'd rather have a genuine expert educating our readership than to personally try to refocus my monthly column as "Standard C++." (Some of you who read other trade magazines may have noticed that I've even discontinued one of my other gigs — reducing my annual production from 40 columns to 28.)
Within WG21/X3J16, I've slowly adopted a more passive role. Some people seemed convinced that I was bent on turning C++ into a mildly reworked C, or that I intended to sabotage that standards effort in some subtler way. Every time I injected an opinion, I formed antibodies. Now I mostly speak only when spoken to, and cheer from the sidelines. It's the best way I know to genuinely help.
C has become a grown-up language. It is standardized, widely used, and essential to the portability of many large chunks of code. How dull. C++, on the other hand, is still in its adolescence. It can brashly charge off in all directions, try new things, knowing the rent will be paid by others. Anybody who wants to muck with dialects of C knows that C++ is a more malleable platform. So that's where the action is today. And that's why CUJ has steadily increased its coverage of matters C++.
C is far from dead and I, as a putative C expert, am far from ossified. But there's no harm in conserving energy and stepping out of the way, from time to time. Having a teenage son has taught me the wisdom of both those actions. Even more important, Geoffrey has underscored for me the rewards of gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
P.J. Plauger
pjp@plauger. com