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The Evolution of C++: 1985-1989

09 May 1989

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The C++ Programming Language describes C++ as defined and implemented in August 1985. This paper describes the growth of the language since then and clarifies a few points in the definition. It is emphasized that these language modifications are extensions; C++ has been and will remain a stable language suitable for long term software development. The main new features of C++ are: multiple inheritance, typesafe linkage, better resolution of overloaded functions, recursive definition of assignment and initialization, better facilities for user-defined memory management, abstract classes, static member functions, const member functions, protected members, overloading of operator ->, and pointers to members. These features are provided in the 2.0 release of C++.