Introduction to C++

C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroupstrup at AT & T Bell Laboratories, USA in early 1980’s. He combined the best of C language and Simula 67 and created a language that could support object oriented programming features and still have power of C.

C++ is a language that can be used for two methods of writing computer programs:

procedural programming and object-oriented programming .

In procedural programming, the programmer constructs procedures (or functions, as they are called in C++). The procedures are collections of programming statements that perform a specific task. The procedures each contain their own variables and commonly share variables with other procedures.

Procedural programming is centered on the procedure, or function. 

Object-oriented programming (OOP), on the other hand, is centered on the object. An object is a programming element that contains data and the procedures that operate on the data. It is a self-contained unit.

The objects contain, within themselves, both information and the ability to manipulate the information. Operations are carried out on the information in an object by sending the object a message. When an object receives a message instructing it to perform some operation, it carries out the instruction.

 

The most important facilities that C++ adds on to C are Classes, inheritance, function overloading, and operator overloading. The object oriented features in C++ allows programmers to build large programs with clarity, extensibility and ease of maintenance, incorporating the spirit of efficiency of C.

Applications of C++

C++ is suitable for virtually any programming task including development of editors, compilers, databases, communication systems and any complex real-life application systems.