C++ Programming

C++ Programming

Introduction

C++ is a programming language used for the several purposes. As a matter of fact, the C++ language is regarded as one of the intermediate type of languages. This language inculcates the high as well as low level of features that a language possesses. This language was developed in 1979 by the Bjarne Stroustrup at the Bell Labs. The origin of the name C++ (C plus plus) was primarily named C as the classes, due to the product focused features, for example, the enhancement to the C language of the programming. However, with the passage of time, this language was come to be known as C++ in 1983, as a language including an additional operator (Stroustrup, 2008).

Over the period of time, this language gained wide popularity in the domain of programming languages. This language, however, is used on a broad range of hardware and operating systems. This language is efficient, due to this reason it serves as the platform for the development of many software as well as video games. The compiler software of C++ serves as the backbone for the language. This language has inspired many other languages such as Java etc (Hollingworth et. al., 2000).

The enhancement of this language to an addition of C resulted from adding classes and then the virtual functions, templates, diversified functions etc. The standards used in the C++ languages were recognized in 1998 as ISO/IEC 14882:1998. However, the incumbent level of standardization of the C++ language were confirmed and promulgated by ISO in the year 2011 as ISO/IEC 14882:2011, this unofficially known as C++11.

History

The origin of the C++ language can be traced with the Danish and British trained computer expert or scientist, Bjarne Stroustrup. This man began working on this language as “C with Classes” back in 1979. The work initiated with the Stroustrup's practice in programming for the completion of his Ph.D dissertation. Stroupstrup ascertained that the Simula, a language of that time, is pregnant with all necessary features, but is very slow and cannot bring any fruitful results in programming. On the other hand another language known as BCPS was the fast but does not have the capability to cater the need of large software. However, when he started to work at the AT&T Bell Labs, he found it very difficult to analyze the problems associated with the LINUX Kernel in terms of distributed computing (Groven et. al., 2003).

As a part of his PhD thesis, Stroustrup worked hard to enhance the C language with the feature similar to Simula. At that time, there were some other languages that inspired him to endeavor to his ultimate aim, these were: ALGOL 68, Ada, CLU etc. The term of the language altered in 1983 from the C Class to C++, the ++ is the increment in the operator C. This increment inculcated the newer feature such as virtual functions, constants, memory control, type checking etc. The first edition of C++ was launched in 1985, at that time there was not ...