C++: The Documentary

# C++: The Documentary released today Source: [https://herbsutter.com/2026/06/04/c-the-documentary-released-today/](https://herbsutter.com/2026/06/04/c-the-documentary-released-today/) [C\+\+](https://herbsutter.com/category/c/) 2026\-06\-042026\-06\-042 Minutes [*C\+\+: The Documentary*premiered today on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w), and it was great to be on the live chat with Bjarne and many other key folks who participated in C\+\+’s history\. I’m honored to have been one of hundreds of people who have played a part in advancing Bjarne’s wonderful project over the years\. If you haven’t watched this yet, make it a weekend goal\. What a great synopsis of a 40\-year success story, from humble beginnings to global adoption to being currently \([as of Q3 2025](https://www.slashdata.co/research/developer-population)\) the fastest\-growing of the top four languages in the world… \+90% users in the past 3\.5 years\. People who appear in the documentary: - Bjarne Stroustrup: Bell Labs, Designer and original implementer of C\+\+ - Alexander Stepanov: Designer of the Standard Template Library - Anders Hejlsberg: Creator of C\#, TypeScript, and Turbo Pascal - Andrei Alexandrescu: Principal Research Scientist, Nvidia & C\+\+ Author - Andrew Koenig: Bell Labs, Founding member of the C\+\+ Standards Committee, Researcher, C\+\+ Author & Educator - Barbara Moo: Bell Labs, Manager C\+\+ Development Team & C\+\+ Author - Brian Kernighan: Bell Labs, Computer Scientist, Co\-author of “The C Programming Language” - Chris Lattner: Creator of Mojo, LLVM, Clang & Swift - Danilo Piparo: Particle Physicist, CERN, ROOT Framework Project Lead - Eric Lubin: Software Developer – Lead, Hudson River Trading - Gabriel Dos Reis: Software Engineer and Architect, Microsoft; C\+\+ tools builder; Mathematician - Herb Sutter: Technical Fellow, Citadel Securities; Chair, Standard C\+\+ Foundation; Chair Emeritus, ISO C\+\+ Committee - John Romero: Video Game Developer, Co\-Creator of Doom and Quake, Co\-Founder id Software - Nina Ranns: Vice\-Convener of the ISO C\+\+ Committee Chapters - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w)Intro - [01:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=110s)Invention at AT&T Bell Labs - [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=450s)C with Classes - [09:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=577s)Early adoption of C with Classes - [10:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=653s)From C with Classes to C\+\+ \(and CFront\) - [12:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=752s)Why is it called C\+\+? - [13:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=804s)AT&T starts selling software / Another team tries to take over C\+\+ - [16:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=968s)Early development of C\+\+ at AT&T Bell Labs - [19:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=1150s)“It was a buggy product” / Release 2\.0\.0 - [21:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=1315s)C\+\+ spreading beyond AT&T - [24:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=1490s)Too many versions of C\+\+ - [26:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=1563s)Need for standardization - [29:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=1778s)The STL by Alexander Stepanov - [37:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=2239s)The first standard: C\+\+98 - [39:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=2361s)C\+\+ at CERN in the 90s - [40:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=2434s)C\+\+ spreading to games and trading - [43:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=2580s)C\+\+ winter of the early 2000s - [45:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=2734s)Programming language wars \(C\#\) - [49:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=2965s)There’s a need for an efficient programming language again - [52:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=3149s)Modern C\+\+ \(C\+\+11\) - [56:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=3389s)Is the standards committee making C\+\+ too complicated? - [1:00:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=3645s)C\+\+ is everwhere - [01:05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=3900s)The future and challenges for C\+\+ - [01:08:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w&t=4111s)Bjarne’s impact  ## Published byHerb Sutter Herb Sutter is an author and speaker, and a technical fellow at Citadel Securities\. He serves as chair of the Standard C\+\+ Foundation and its conference CppCon, and served as chair of the ISO C\+\+ standards committee from 2002 to 2025\.[View all posts by Herb Sutter](https://herbsutter.com/author/herbsutter/) **Published**2026\-06\-042026\-06\-04 ## Post navigation