In this coding guide, you will learn about C++ Programming Language which is the successor to C Language.
C++ is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language. That means it supports procedural, functional, object-oriented,generic ways of writing code.
In multi-paradigm languages Programmer can work in a variety of styles, freely intermixing constructs from different paradigms. The goal of such languages is to allow programmers to use the best way of completing the job in a most efficient way.
C++ also provide facilities for low-level memory manipulation. C++ introduces object-oriented programming (OOP) features to C. It also offers classes, which provide features commonly present in OOP languages like: Abstraction, Inheritance, Encapsulation, and Polymorphism.
Development of C++ Programming
C++ programming language developed by Danish computer scientist “Bjarne Stroustrup”. During his Ph.D. found that Simula was too slow but has features that will be helpful for large software development. While working in Bell labs, Stroustrup wanted to enhance C language with Simula which supports “classes”. This led to the development of new language known as “C with Classes” or “new C”. C was chosen because it was general-purpose, fast, portable and widely used.
Stroustrup’s “C with Classes” added features to the C compiler, Cpre, including classes, derived classes, strong typing, default arguments and inlining.
Later in 1983, “C with Classes” was renamed to “C++” with some additional features like references, constants, memory allocation (new and delete), improved type checking, function name, virtual functions and single line comment (using forward slashes //).
Important: In renaming of “C with Classes”, ++ used to highlight that C++ is the increment in C. ++ is the increment operator in C Language.
First Edition of the C++ Programming Language book written by Stroustrup was published in 1985, which served as the reference for programmers as there was no standard. The first implementation of C++ was released in October of the same year.
Many programming languages influenced by C++ such as Ada 95, C#, C99, Chapel, D, Java, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Rust, Nim.
Standards of C++ Programming
Standardization of C++ started in 1998 by ISO working group known as JTC1/SC22/WG21. Till now ISO has published five standards for C++. Latest is C++14. The list for all standards given below and the detail explanation will be provided in the next article.
Year C++ Standard Informal name
1998 ISO/IEC 14882:1998 C++98
2003 ISO/IEC 14882:2003 C++03
2011 ISO/IEC 14882:2011 C++11, C++0x
2014 ISO/IEC 14882:2014 C++14, C++1y
2017 ISO/IEC 14882:2017 C++17, C++1z
2020 to be determined C++20
Tip: Always take a break once after 1 or 2 hours of studying programming. If not you will end up with lots of hate for coding.