Impressions of JJHou

Today I finally met the legendary translator Hou Jie (JJHou) in person. He came to our Software Institute to give a talk. I’ve been reading his translations since my sophomore year — “STL Source Code Analysis,” “Inside COM,” “Essential COM,” etc. I feel like I already know him well through his work.

The real person matches the legend. His lecture was excellent, and he is truly passionate about technology. He talked about the essence of C++ and the spirit of object-oriented programming.

During the Q&A session, a student asked: “Mr. Hou, with Java and .NET being so popular now, do you think C++ is dying?”

Hou smiled and said: “This question has been around for over a decade. I remember someone asking the same thing ten years ago. C++ is still alive and well. In systems programming, game development, embedded systems, high-performance computing — C++ is irreplaceable. Java and .NET are great, but they’re not substitutes for C++. They solve different problems.”

His answer drew enthusiastic applause.

Later, I got his autograph on my copy of “STL Source Code Analysis.” He wrote: “Let源码 (source code) be before you, with no secrets.”

A memorable day.