This is the story of C++, one of the world’s most widely-used and consequential programming languages. C++ divides opinion, resists replacement, and has outlasted almost everything built to supersede it.
C++ The Documentary traces the full arc, from its origins in the corridors of Bell Labs to the global community that shapes it today.
Featuring the people who built it, extended it, argued over it, and refused to let it die.
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; Emeritus Chair, 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 Intro
01:50 Invention at AT&T Bell Labs
07:30 C with Classes
09:37 Early adoption of C with Classes
10:53 From C with Classes to C++ (and CFront)
12:32 Why is it called C++?
13:24 AT&T starts selling software / Another team tries to take over C++
16:08 Early development of C++ at AT&T Bell Labs
19:10 “It was a buggy product” / Release 2.0.0
21:55 C++ spreading beyond AT&T
24:50 Too many versions of C++
26:03 Need for standardization
29:38 The STL by Alexander Stepanov
37:19 The first standard: C++98
39:21 C++ at CERN in the 90s
40:34 C++ spreading to games and trading
43:00 C++ winter of the early 2000s
45:34 Programming language wars (C#)
49:25 There’s a need for an efficient programming language again
52:29 Modern C++ (C++11)
56:29 Is the standards committee making C++ too complicated?
1:00:45 C++ is everwhere
01:05:00 The future and challenges for C++
01:08:31 Bjarne’s impact
————————————————————————————————————————-
Thanks to Hudson River Trading for making this documentary possible ➡️➡️
————————————————————————————————————————-
Thanks to Railway, our channel sponsor, for supporting our work ➡️
————————————————————————————————————————-
Directed by: Ida Bechtle
Produced by: Emma Tracey
————————————————————————————————————————-
Follow us:
X:
Bluesky:
Instagram:
LinkedIn:
source
I'm still really early in my software career and I've always wanted to get into C++. I'm still very much a beginner, but I can't wait for the day I actually know how to use it! Amazing Documentary, thank you for creating it!
Next C++ related documentary/ Boost Library documentary trailer: https://youtu.be/87jvuDbnwqQ?si=OQtuC2dJgqkgcoEz
What happened to the php story? Did I miss it?
28:00 the annotated c++ reference manual pdf 32:00 the science of c++ programming 34:00 Design and Evolution of C++, The 39:40 programming principles and practice using c++ 54:30 a tour of c++ by bjarne stroustrup 1:11:00 featuring
After C++, Bjarne invented the flux capacitor.
beat Rust, please.
Best language
The editing and presentation here is top notch. Great job!
27:01 can't believe big corps admit their weakness and agree on handovering it to right person for the greater good.
I have some ideas that will change C÷÷ forever for better and getting the final complete code in hours or days vs many years. A combination of AI and smart real time compiler. Any one from the committee contact me. It will chance how you code forever.
Seriously, how much different would the world be without Bjarne Stroustrup? And how different would your career be now? A truly incredible man, one of the all time greatest in the history of the computer. And this is not a thing of the past, we benefit from further outstanding contributions he makes to this day, absolutely extraordinary.
24:20 “no sugar daddies trying to push this out in the world” lol
C++: gave us so much and the brilent minds that grinded for years evolving C++: . Thank you. we come a long way in 60 years. haven't we.
Amazing content as always!
Did mr carmac say no cause mr romero was there ?
This documentary feels like a badass summer vacation with your grandparents and their friends.
C++ is like Doctor Who it's always dying (or so they say) and it just regenerates it never dies
timed releases was a revolution, thank God for them
This was a very well put together story about C++. Nicely done and very delightful to see the birth, pains and success of one of the most important modern languages ever created.
for me C++ is the best programming language there is (Rust et al are a joke a bad joke)
I felt boosted, wow, thanks, c, cpp, all open-source devs
best Programming Language by a danish guy
Been an exclusive C++ programmer from 1999 to 2024, I learned Rust for about two months in 2024 and realized Rust should replace C++ for the benefit of humanity, if I set my devotion to C++ aside for a while. With a handful of features Rust has already achieved more than what C++ might never achieve with its evergrowing repository of features. Released in June 2026, the documentary carefully avoids discussing Rust which justifies my conviction even further. Still the work of C++ committee is important as that can open additional pathways for Rust.
Very well done, appreciate this video!
Where is documentary Story of C (Notably C99 before Dennis Ritchie died)?
"There are 20 different ways to initialize a variable". THIS. I don't want to have to learn 20 ways. Difficult enough knowing the few best ways that even then are situationally dependent. If you have 20 ways, what is 1 more that is the be all, end all "simplest" way that is "good enough" (always correct, maybe not always the most performant) 99.999% of the time? Then learn to just do that. And don't forget all the AI slop that was trained about all the now "wrong' ways of doing things.
5:55 "big"… and then we see Barbara Moo. Fitting.
50:49 You can close tabs with `cmd + w`. No need to thank me
Watching this reminds me to go back to coding instead of relying on AI.
This is an important piece of history that we should learn about 👌😑
I have no idea why John Romero is in this video.
It was good to see my old boss Barbara Moo in the story. Early in the lifetime of C++ (1988), she saw clearly that we had to work hard to convert our initial "oral tradition" of C++ development into a "written tradition!"
Quite a lot of these guys use Thinkpad. 🔴
They really should just freeze the language and recommend everybody convert to rust for brand new projects. Rust is as close as you can get to a perfect programming language
I remember Bjarne's C++ book as by far the worst-written programming book I have ever bought.
This is a magisterial documentary not only about Bjarne Stroustup and C++, but also makes useful observations about the economics and philosophy of computing and work as a software developer. It lifts the veil over the how and why we write software the way we do, and what kinds of tools we want for the problems we are trying to solve. Yes, AI will change how we do this because it provides levers we previously didn't have, but this documentary will give pointers to young programmers who want to learn how to think effectively about programming.