[Novalug] DC ACM 50th Gala - Ticket Prices Increase on October 19th - Keynote Speaker Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor of C++ Language

[William Fielder]

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this email to coworkers, 
friends and family who might be interested.  You do not have to be a 
member of ACM or DC ACM to attend. NOTE: the price of tickets for the 
Gala will increase on Sunday, October 19th.

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The DC Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (DC ACM) is 
proud to announce that its 50th Anniversary Gala will be held Saturday, 
November 1, 2008 at the Hilton in Downtown Silver Spring.  Our keynote 
speaker is Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ programming 
language.  He is travelling here from College Station, Texas, so don't 
miss this rare opportunity!

Title of Presentation: 50 years of C++ (including "prehistory")

Abstract:

This is a talk about the design and evolution of C++. As all programming 
languages, C++ owes a lot to earlier languages and evolves through the 
blending of ideas. This talk tries to answer some common questions about 
that success of C++: why did it succeed? At what did it succeed? How did 
it maintain a steady course over more than 25 years? At what did it not 
succeed? The scale of C++’s success was unanticipated and its continuing 
strength has left many language and business theorists puzzled, so 
explanations are required. Given the long time span involved and because 
no large system can be designed with 20-20 hindsight, a historical 
perspective is an essential part of any answer. A combination of 
technical, philosophical, and sociological issues must be considered. 
This talk focuses on the design aims of C++ and Dr. Stroustrup’s 
philosophy of incremental language evolution relying on feedback loops. 
It goes into some detail on the ISO standards process which has been 
central to the stability and evolution of C++. It gives a few – but only 
very few – illustrative code examples.

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All the details about the Gala -- which is a "black tie optional" party 
that includes a sit-down dinner, a silent auction, and a historical 
exhibit -- can be found at:

http://www.dcacm.org/gala

We accept both checks and credit card payments (online).  Ticket prices 
are as follows:

October 1-18   $40/one ticket, $75/two tickets
October 19-29  $50/ticket, $100/two tickets
Full-time students (anytime) $25/ticket

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Gala chair
Cora Dickson at gala at dcacm.org.

Regards,

William Fielder
Chair, DC ACM