C++, like every widely used language, evolves and adapts to new ideas, trends and innovations. Changes are approved by the JTC1/SC22/WG21 working group of the international independent organization ISO (from the Greek word isos – equal, same) in cooperation with the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), and the official standardization website is isocpp.org . I assume that any potential changes to the language also have to be proposed to the committee by email first, since there is no specialized website (not even a discussion forum) for that.
History before the first standardization:
- 1979 – Bjarne Stroustrup starts working on the language “C with Classes”
- 1983 – The new official name is C++
- 1985 – Bjarne Stroustrup publishes the book The C++ Programming Language, a complete reference guide to the language
- 1989 – C++ 2.0 is released
- 1990 – The Annotated C++ Reference Manual, an annotated version intended for standards organizations
- 1991 – A follow-up edition of The C++ Programming Language is published, fully updated for the second version of the language
- 1998 – ISO/IEC publish the C++98 standard
Further ISO/IEC standards followed:
- C++03 – Fixes for serious oversights in the first standard
- C++11 – A major enrichment of the whole language, growing popularity
- C++14 – Only minor improvements over C++11, more info for example on Wiki