<fx: Clears throat and settles down with a cup of coffee>

Cast your mind back to days gone by when men were men and real men coded in <insert your favourite language> etc. etc. etc. C was the language and OO was coming to C.

Well it's announcement time. Rumours were rife, the press was expectant (and wined). The venue? No doubt a large hall, serried ranks of journos, recorders and notepads at the ready, sitting with expectation as suits took the stand.

This was it. Ripples of excited comments surged across the crowded hall as the riches of the promised land were expounded to an excited audience. No more unmanagable and unstable code! No more re inventing the wheel! Projects would be completed on time *and* within budget! (ROFL)

Any way near the back of the Hall one journo, more predatory than the rest gently raised a query.

Journo. "Can you tell us, why the name? C++?" <fx: Gentle and inquisitive smile>

Suit. "Well you know if you're incrementing a variable?" (Note the slow speech as these difficult concepts are put over)

J. "Yes"

S. "Well, now you'll have to listen carefully to this bit, this is 'C' but it's better, yes?"

J. "Yes"

S. "Ok, 'C' is the variable, we're incrementing a variable, making 'C' better, therefore........'*C++*' !!!!' <fx: puppy like beaming smile as if waiting for pat on head>

J. <fx: gently smiling (Yes think of crocodiles and sharks)> "So this version of 'C' we will be using is.... before it's made better?"

<fx: muffled snorts as suit stands with fixed "Why didn't marketing choose '++C'" look on face>

George