Linus Torvalds (2007-09-07), Message to gmane.comp.version-control.git mailing list, retrieved: 2007-09-22

C++ is in that inconvenient spot where it doesn't help make things simple enough to be truly usable for prototyping or simple GUI programming, and yet isn't the lean system programming language that C is that actively encourages you to use simple and direct constructs.

— Linus Torvalds on C++

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "C++ is in that inconvenient spot where it doesn't help make things simple enough to be truly usable for prototyping or simple GUI programming, and yet isn't the lean system programming language that C is that actively encourages you to use simple and direct constructs." in the context of "Linus Torvalds (2007-09-07), Message to gmane.comp.version-control.git mailing list, retrieved: 2007-09-22" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "C++" (Quotes: Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author, S - Z) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Linus Torvalds

About Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds (born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish-American computer programmer, best known as the creator of the Linux kernel.