C++ Programming for Beginners

COURSE DESCRIPTION

C++ is a general-purpose, cross-platform language used to create high-performance applications. C++ was created by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language. The Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs (now Nokia Bell Labs) began work on C with Classes, the predecessor to C++ in 1979. The motivation for creating a new language originated from Stroustrup’s experience in programming for his Ph.D. thesis. Stroustrup used the language Simula, which is designed for simulations. He noticed the object-oriented programming paradigm in Simula. Stroustrup found that this paradigm was very useful for software development.

C++ is a superset of C. He chooses the C language because it was general-purpose, fast, portable, and widely used. In 1983, the name of the language was changed from C with Classes to C++ (the ++ operator is the increment operator in C++). In 1985, Stroustrup’s reference to the language, The C++ Programming Language was released. The first commercial implementation of C++ was released in October 1985. The language was updated again in 1989 to include protected and static members, as well as an inheritance from several classes. C++ 2.0 was released in 1989, followed by the updated second edition of The C++ Programming Language in 1991. In 1998, C++98 was released, standardizing the language, and a minor update (C++03) was released in 2003. In 2011, the C++11 standard was released, which adds new numerous features, enlarging the standard library further, and providing more facilities to C++ programmers. Then C++14 and C++17 are released. C++ is standardized by an ISO working group known as JTC1/SC22/WG21. They had published five revisions of the C++ standard and are currently working on the next revision, C++20.

The compiler is used to translate the C++ code into a language that a computer can understand. In 1990, Borland’s Turbo C++ compiler was released as a commercial product. Turbo C++’s last stable release was in 2006. The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is an environment to edit and compile the code. Some popular IDEs are Code:: Blocks, Eclipse, and Visual Studio. The GNU Compiler Collection includes front ends for C, C++, and other languages. GCC was originally written as the compiler for the GNU operating system.

C++ is still the fourth most popular programming language according to the TIOBE Index.

CERTIFICATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES