Basics of C++

C++ Basics

C++ is a statically typed, compiled, general-purpose, case-sensitive, free-form programming language that supports procedural, object-oriented, and generic programming.

C++ is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features.

C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, as an enhancement to the C language and originally named C with Classes but later it was renamed C++ in 1983.

C++ is a superset of C, and that virtually any legal C program is a legal C++ program.

Note − A programming language is said to use static typing when type checking is performed during compile-time as opposed to run-time.

Object-Oriented Programming

C++ fully supports object-oriented programming, including the four pillars of object-oriented development −

• Encapsulation
• Data hiding
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism

Standard Libraries

Standard C++ consists of three important parts −

• The core language giving all the building blocks including variables, data types and literals, etc.
• The C++ Standard Library giving a rich set of functions manipulating files, strings, etc.
• The Standard Template Library (STL) giving a rich set of methods manipulating data structures, etc.

The ANSI Standard

The ANSI standard is an attempt to ensure that C++ is portable; that code you write for Microsoft's compiler will compile without errors, using a compiler on a Mac, UNIX, a Windows box, or an Alpha.

The ANSI standard has been stable for a while, and all the major C++ compiler manufacturers support the ANSI standard.

Learning C++

The most important thing while learning C++ is to focus on concepts.

The purpose of learning a programming language is to become a better programmer; that is, to become more effective at designing and implementing new systems and at maintaining old ones.

C++ supports a variety of programming styles. You can write in the style of Fortran, C, Smalltalk, etc., in any language. Each style can achieve its aims effectively while maintaining runtime and space efficiency.

Use of C++

C++ is used by hundreds of thousands of programmers in essentially every application domain.

C++ is being highly used to write device drivers and other software that rely on direct manipulation of hardware under realtime constraints.

C++ is widely used for teaching and research because it is clean enough for successful teaching of basic concepts.

Anyone who has used either an Apple Macintosh or a PC running Windows has indirectly used C++ because the primary user interfaces of these systems are written in C++.

Local Environment Setup

If you are still willing to set up your environment for C++, you need to have the following two software on your computer.

Text Editor

This will be used to type your program. Examples of few editors include Windows Notepad, OS Edit command, Brief, Epsilon, EMACS, and vim or vi.

Name and version of text editor can vary on different operating systems. For example, Notepad will be used on Windows and vim or vi can be used on windows as well as Linux, or UNIX.

The files you create with your editor are called source files and for C++ they typically are named with the extension .cpp, .cp, or .c.

A text editor should be in place to start your C++ programming.

C++ Compiler

This is an actual C++ compiler, which will be used to compile your source code into the final executable program.

Most C++ compilers don't care what extension you give to your source code, but if you don't specify otherwise, many will use .cpp by default.

Most frequently used and the free available compiler is GNU C/C++ compiler, otherwise, you can have compilers either from HP or Solaris if you have the respective Operating Systems.

Features of C++

1) Better memory management – you can dynamically allocate memory during runtime using new and delete operator in C++ to have better memory management.

2) Object-oriented – C++ supports object-oriented programming features, which means we can use the popular OOPs concepts such as Abstraction, Inheritance, Encapsulation and Inheritance in C++ programs, these features make writing code in C++ a lot easier. We will cover them in detail in this tutorial series.

3) Portable – Most of the C++ compilers supports ANSI standards that makes C++ portable because the code you write on one operating system can be run on another Operating system without making any change. We cannot say C++ a fully platform independent language as certain things in C++ are not portable, such as drawing graphics on a screen, since standard C++ has no graphics or GUI API.

4) Structured programming language – We have functions in C++, which makes easier to break a problem into small blocks of code and structure the program in such a way so that it improves readability and reusability.

5) Exception handling: Just like Java we can do exception handling in C++ which makes it easier to identify and handle the exceptions.

6) Simple – Last but not least, just like C, it is easier to write a program in C++. Once you get familiar with the syntax of C++ programming language, it becomes a lot easier to code in C++.