Why people think that the only man who created C++ was Bjarne Stroustrup?

Question

I am currently reading Stroustrup's book "Design and Evolution of C++" and it turns out that he was not the one who developed C++.
When I hear someone saying "Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++ blah-blah-blah", I always feel it is very unfair to these guys who worked with BS - I mean Jonathan Shopiro, Andrew Koenig, Stan Lippman, Stefan Dewhurst and others. Why is it that way? Even wikipedia does not mention his team - only him What it that about?
EDIT:
When people say C#, they did not mean Anders Hejlsberg ONLY, there were a development team working on both exactly C# and .NET Framework. May be it`s because C++ does not belong to any software-giant company, as Java to Sun or C# to MS?

Answer 1

One reason why people might think Mr Stroustrup did it is that he says so himself, on the web:

I (Bjarne Stroustrup) am the designer and original implementor of C++.

I haven't read the book you mention; can you add quotes to the question that show how the evolution of the language and who did what is explained, therein? It seems weird for Mr Stroustrup to be claiming one thing on the web, very much in public, and another in a book.

Answer 2

That's usual. Nobel prizes are also given to one or several people and noone mentions numerous people who devoted their time to the research process that actually made the achievement possible.

One reason for that is it's easier to remember one name than two dozens or hundreds.

Answer 3

It's kinda the same thing as with PHP and Rasmus Lerdorf. He fathered the idea but later on other people joined in.

Answer 4

C++ has gone through two major stages of its evolution.

The early days were Bjarne Stroustrup making a language. He obviously borrowed ideas from others, and solicited feedback from several clever language designers, and no doubt had a small team working under him, but the language was fundamentally his baby.

In those days, I don't really have a problem with saying that Stroustrup designed the language. Obviously he didn't do it in a vacuum, he got a good deal of help from others, but that's just it. They helped him design his language. They didn't take ownership of it.

The second phase is where it's at now: An ISO standard. These are maintained by committees, and in the C++ committee, Stroustrup is just one out of many participating members. His words might still carry a bit more weight because of his history with the language, but fundamentally, he no longer has any kind of special status. He's just a contributor, like all the others in the committee.

The moment the language was standardized, it ceased to be "his" language. After that, he, and many others just helped the ISO maintain and evolve the language.

At least that's how I see it.

Answer 5

Thats because people think in persons, not in teams or companies, whatever. I think the human brain associates single things with single persons. Thats how we work internally. Although we try to be rational and logical we cannot deny our nature. Its the same reason why a state has one single president, although decisions are made by lots of other politicians.