An Overview of C++

C++ is built on top of C as a "better C". It incorporates:

• Features designed to make C safer:
  1. Support for comments that end with the line.
  2. Function templates include parameter type information,
  3. Reference parameters are allowed,
  4. Default function arguments,
  5. The const storage class which prevents the program from altering the values of the item protected,
  6. Operators new and delete for < href="code/memory.cpp">memory allocation. Actually I am underwhelmed by this feature. I understand why it is there but believe that you buy compilers so that you dont have to worry about this. (Guess what my favourite laguages are!!).
• Features designed to support the object oriented paradigm
  1. Classes as implementations of abstract data types that respond to messages,
  2. Inheritance which allows one class to derive properties from a class higher up the heirarchy,
  3. Polymorphism that allows an object to determine its response to a message dynamically at run time, rather than statically at compile time.
  4. Operator overloading, similar to polymorphism but static.
• Features for program construction (I am not happy with this term, but it will have to do). These are not really object oriented nor safeness issues but they are useful aspects of C++
  1. Support for templates which are generic design. For example a stack template that cna be used to implement stacks of integers or floats or other objects,
  2. Error handling through the use of try blocks.
  These last two features have not taken general hold yet, but they should do. MSVC 2 does not have either, Borland 3 has templates, Borland 4 has try blocks. The Solaris version of C++ has both.

  The object oriented nature of C++ makes it appropriate for programming applications with GUI interfaces. Microsoft Visual C++ provides special classes for GUIs.

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Last Changed: 28 February 1996