C++ : Preface

‘General purpose programming language emphasizing the design and use of type-rich, light-weight abstractions.’

It is emphasized that it was designed very much with the goals of being very general purpose, both low and high level. Zero overhead principle.
C++ supports and encourages the use of many programming styles such as procedural, data abstraction, oop and generic.

The fundamental object in C++ has identity; that is, it is located in a specific location in memory and can be distinguished from other objects with (potentially) the same value by comparing addresses. Expressions denoting such objects are called lvalues […] There have also been objects without identity (objects for which an address cannot be safely stored for later use). In C++, this notion of rvalue has been developed into a notion of a value that can be ‘moved around cheaply’.

C++ is concerned with resource management.

After this, Bjarne goes on and on about the rationale behind C++ and a brief overview of everything it has went through in 30 something years (as of C++11).