Ashley Ehman - The Power of C++

Published in 2018 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
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Copyright 2018 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
First Edition

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This publication represents the opinions and views of the author based on his or her personal experience, knowledge, and research. The information in this book serves as a general guide only. The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability rising directly or indirectly from the use and application of this book.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ehman, Ashley.
Title: The power of C++ / Ashley Ehman.
Description: New York : Cavendish Square Publishing, 2018. | Series: The Power of coding | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN ISBN 9781502634207 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781502629401 (library bound) | ISBN 9781502629418 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: C++ (Computer program language)--Juvenile literature. | Computer programming--Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC QA76.73.C153 E46 2018 | DDC 794./1526--dc23

Editorial Director: David McNamara Editor: Caitlyn Miller
Copy Editor: Rebecca Rohan
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Designer: Christina Shults
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Printed in the United States of America

Opposite : The way that students learn in the classroom has been greatly influenced by modern technologies, such as laptop computers .

The History of C++

T ake a look around you. Perhaps you are at home, reading this book in your room, or even at school, skimming these pages during your study period. You might see someone clicking away at a laptop, or a friend texting on their smartphone. Not so long ago, this would have been a much different picture. Instead of these modern conveniences, you would have seen people communicating on a large, bulky, desktop computer complete with clunky keyboard or a landline telephone. Yet, technology has a way of evolvingand expanding.

Aside from their physical appearances, the devices that you use are only as advanced as they are because of the computer programmers who gear them toward everyday people. A big part of emphasizing usability is creating effective coding languages that can adapt as technology does. One such adaptable language is C++.

Simula to C with Classes

Like the technology it drives, C++ had a somewhat complicated history before finally becoming the language we know it as today. As it stands, C++ is used in a variety of platforms and serves as the inspiration for many of the languages that were developed after it. Its status as a general-purpose programming language makes it useful in nearly every application that implements C++. This is because it can be adapted to fit the needs of the program. Where other languages specialize in particular programming tactics, C++ serves as a catchall in the programming community. While it was influenced by a lot of other programming languages, Simula 67 was the one that influenced C++ the most. Simula 67, or Simula for short, was a programming language created in the 1960s to run computer simulations. It is from this language that a programmer named Bjarne Stroustrup first began forming his main ideas of what C++ should be. During his time as a student at the Computing Laboratory of Cambridge University in London, Stroustrup became more and more familiar with Simula. One of the main things that stood out to him was the languages ability to map out his ideas into actual constructed code known as classes . Because of its use of classes, Simula was incredibly readable to the programmer. Classes also made Simula much easier to understand for those who were not familiar with a chunk of codes purpose.

Bjarne Stroustrup studied at Cambridge University in London, where he learned a great deal about what he would eventually turn into C++.

Along with its easily understood syntax (the grammar of the code itself), the language also allowed for fewer errors to occur when the program began running, thanks to its ability to recognize type errors. A type error is when a program acts in an undesirable way. Type errors are due to an irresolvable difference between the kind of data being placed into the program and what the program is supposed to do with this data. Think of it this way: a raw egg and a hard-boiled egg are both eggs, but only one can make a cake. In this example, the egg is the variable (think of a variable as a container for storing data). The hard-boiled versus raw characteristic is its data type. Finally, the cake at the end of the process is the program. While Simula had strengths in its zero-level abstraction and ability to pick out type errors, Stroustrup saw that it also had its downfalls.

As he worked more and more with Simula, he noted a few things that were undesirable about the language. As his projects grew in size and scope, Stroustrup became increasingly more aware of Simulas inability to grow with his programs. When he asked his programs to communicate with separate classes, he ran into time issues. The time it took to run the programs was not as quick as it had been when his programs were smaller. In addition, he found that what is known as runtime performance was also poor. This meant that it was unrealistic to continue running simulations, as the data retrieved would be essentially useless. As a last-ditch effort to save his project, Stroustrup rewrote the entire thing using a more machine-oriented language called BCPL. The problems hed encountered with Simula were so severe that if he had not rewritten his project, he would not have earned his PhD. His final project ran at speeds that were desirable. However, BCPL lacked the simplistic implementation that Simula had offered.