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David Abrahams (computer programmer)
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<p>David Abrahams is a <a href="/facts/Computer_programmer/WGTS1Jv9">computer programmer</a> and <a href="/facts/System_administrator/zNhThrh9">admin</a>. He is the son of physicist <a href="/facts/Elihu_Abrahams/R0tnXIG8">Elihu Abrahams</a> and choreographer Geulah Abrahams. He is most well known for his activities related to the <a href="/facts/C%252B%252B/Et0F2qn9">C++</a> programming language. In particular, his contributions to the language include the delineating of a theory of <a href="/facts/Exception_handling/VrJxgb9r">exceptions</a>, sitting on the C++ Standards Committee, being a founding member of <a href="/facts/Boost_(C%252B%252B_libraries)/vGLGG51A">Boost</a> and co-authoring a book on the subject of <a href="/facts/Template_metaprogramming/yybwJ7AN">template metaprogramming</a>. </p><p>Abrahams became a member of the C++ Standards Committee in 1996 and served until 2012. During the standardization process that resulted in the first ANSI standard C++ – in 1998 – Abrahams was a principal driving force behind detailing the exception safety of the <a href="/facts/C%252B%252B_Standard_Library/A5vQNSAD">C++ Standard Library</a>. Many of the functions and methods of the standard are specified with one of three guarantees. Together these have become known as the <a href="/facts/Abrahams_guarantees/Hevphbsh">Abrahams guarantees</a>. </p><p>Following the standardization, Abrahams became one of the founding members of Boost.org, a community group founded to provide reusable C++ libraries. Abrahams has written several of the libraries and assisted in the development of others. Abrahams was also the founder and principal member of Boost Consulting (later BoostPro Computing), a company that offered software development and training courses for 12 years (2001–2013) with a heavy bias to use the Boost libraries, and founder of BoostCon, now <a href="http://cppnow.org">C++ Now</a>, the annual conference in <a href="/facts/Aspen%2c_Colorado/T22dr8AX">Aspen</a>, <a href="/facts/Colorado/IgIHrJI5">Colorado</a>. </p><p>In 2013, Abrahams became an employee at <a href="/facts/Apple_Inc./oTJYta3k">Apple Inc</a>, where he worked on the development of the <a href="/facts/Swift_(programming_language)/A7qHQC32">Swift programming language</a> and became the lead of the Swift standard library. In 2017, he joined the SwiftUI project. In January 2020, Abrahams joined <a href="/facts/Google_Brain/yp0eeKSX">Google Brain</a> to work on the Swift for <a href="/facts/TensorFlow/kDwfBeNd">TensorFlow</a> project. In June 2021, Sean Parent announced that Abrahams had joined <a href="/facts/Adobe_Inc./Bj1d5XvJ">Adobe Inc.</a> and together they were relaunching the Software Technology Lab. </p>