History

Stroustrup began work on C with Classes in 1979. The idea of creating a new language
originated from Stroustrup's experience in programming for his Ph.D. thesis. Stroustrup
found that Simula had features that were very helpful for large software development, but
the language was too slow for practical use, while BCPL was fast but too low-level and
unsuitable for large software development. When Stroustrup started working in Bell
Labs, he had the problem of analyzing the UNIX kernel with respect to distributed
computing. Remembering his Ph.D. experience, Stroustrup set out to enhance the C
language with Simula-like features. C was chosen because it is general-purpose, fast, and
portable. Besides C and Simula, some other languages which inspired him were ALGOL
68, Ada, CLU and ML. At first, the class, derived class, strong type checking, inlining,
and default argument features were added to C via Cfront. The first commercial release
occurred in October 1985.[1]

In 1983, the name of the language was changed from C with Classes to C++. New
features that were added to the language included virtual functions, function name and
operator overloading, references, constants, user-controlled free-store memory control,
improved type checking, and a new comment style (//). In 1985, the first edition of The
C++ Programming Language was released, providing an important reference to the
language, as there was not yet an official standard. In 1989, Release 2.0 of C++ was
released. New features included multiple inheritance, abstract classes, static member
functions, const member functions, and protected members. In 1990, The Annotated C++
Reference Manual was released and provided the basis for the future standard. Late
addition of features included templates, exceptions, namespaces, new casts, and a
Boolean type.

As the C++ language evolved, a standard library also evolved with it. The first addition to
the C++ standard library was the stream I/O library which provided facilities to replace
the traditional C functions such as printf and scanf. Later, among the most significant
additions to the standard library, was the Standard Template Library.

After years of work, a joint ANSI-ISO committee standardized C++ in 1998 (ISO/IEC
14882:1998). For some years after the official release of the standard in 1998, the
committee processed defect reports, and published a corrected version of the C++
standard in 2003. In 2005, a technical report, called the "Library Technical Report 1"
(often known as TR1 for short) was released. While not an official part of the standard, it
gives a number of extensions to the standard library which are expected to be included in
the next version of C++. Support for TR1 is growing in almost all currently maintained
C++ compilers.

No one owns the C++ language, as it is royalty-free. However, the standard document
itself is not freely available.

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The name "C++"

This name is credited to Rick Mascitti (mid-1983) and was first used in December 1983.
Earlier, during the research period, the developing language had been referred to as "new
C", then "C with Classes". The final name stems from C's "++" operator (which
increments the value of a variable) and a common naming convention of using "+" to
indicate an enhanced computer program. According to Stroustrup: "the name signifies the
evolutionary nature of the changes from C". C+ was the name of an earlier, unrelated
programming language.

Stroustrup addressed the origin of the name in the preface of later editions of his book,
The C++ Programming Language, adding that "C++" might be inferred from the
appendix of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Of the three segments of the fictional
language Newspeak, the "C vocabulary" is the one dedicated to technical terms and
jargon. "Doubleplus" is the superlative modifier for Newspeak adjectives. Thus, "C++"
might hold the meaning "most extremely technical or jargonous" in Newspeak.

When Rick Mascitti was questioned informally in 1992 about the naming, he indicated
that it was given in a tongue-in-cheek spirit. He never thought that it would become the
formal name of the language.

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Old problems

Traditionally, C++ compilers have had a range of problems. The C++ standard does not
cover implementation of name decoration, exception handling, and other implementation-
specific features, making object code produced by different compilers incompatible; there
are, however, 3rd-party standards for particular machines or operating systems which
attempt to standardize compilers on those platforms (for example C++ ABI[2]), and now
many compilers have adopted a secondary standard for these items.

For many years, different C++ compilers implemented the C++ language to different
levels of compliance to the standard, and their implementations varied widely in some
areas such as partial template specialization. Recent releases of most popular C++
compilers support almost all of the C++ 1998 standard [3]. One particular point of
contention is the export keyword, intended to allow template definitions to be separated
from their declarations. The first compiler to implement export was Comeau C++, in
early 2003 (5 years after the release of the standard); in 2004, beta compiler of Borland
C++ Builder X was also released with export. Both of these compilers are based on the
EDG C++ front end. It should also be noted that many C++ books provide example code
for implementing the keyword export (for example, Beginning ANSI C++ by Ivor
Horton) which will not compile, but there is no reference to the problem with the
keyword export mentioned. Other compilers such as Microsoft Visual C++ and GCC do
not support it at all. Herb Sutter, secretary of the C++ standards committee, has
recommended that export be removed from future versions of the C++ standard [1], but
finally the decision was made to leave it in the C++ standard.

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Future development

C++ continues to evolve to meet future requirements. One group in particular, Boost.org,
works to make the most of C++ in its current form and advises the C++ standards
committee as to which features work well and which need improving. Current work
indicates that C++ will capitalize on its multi-paradigm nature more and more. The work
at Boost, for example, is greatly expanding C++'s functional and metaprogramming
capabilities. A new version of the C++ standard is currently being worked on, entitled
"C++0X" (denoting the fact it is expected to be released before 2010) which will include
a number of new features.

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Philosophy
In The Design and Evolution of C++ (1994), Bjarne Stroustrup describes some rules that
he uses for the design of C++. Knowing the rules helps to understand why C++ is the
way it is. The following is a summary of the rules. Much more detail can be found in The
Design and Evolution of C++.

• C++ is designed to be a statically typed, general-purpose language that is as

efficient and portable as C
• C++ is designed to directly and comprehensively support multiple programming
styles (procedural programming, data abstraction, object-oriented programming,
and generic programming)
• C++ is designed to give the programmer choice, even if this makes it possible for
the programmer to choose incorrectly
• C++ is designed to be as compatible with C as possible, therefore providing a
smooth transition from C
• C++ avoids features that are platform specific or not general purpose
• C++ does not incur overhead for features that are not used
• C++ is designed to function without a sophisticated programming environment

Stanley B. Lippman documents in his in-depth book "Inside the C++ Object Model"
(1996) how compilers convert C++ program statements into an in-memory layout.
Lippman worked on implementing and maintaining C-front, the original C++
implementation at Bell Labs.

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Standard library
The 1998 C++ standard consists of two parts: the core language and the C++ standard
library; the latter includes most of the Standard Template Library and a slightly modified
version of the C standard library. Many C++ libraries exist which are not part of the
standard, and using external linkage, libraries can even be written in C.

The C++ standard library incorporates the C standard library with some small
modifications to make it work better with the C++ language. Another large part of the
C++ library is based on the Standard Template Library (STL). This provides such useful
tools as containers (for example vectors and lists), iterators (generalized pointers) to
provide these containers with array-like access and algorithms to perform operations such
as searching and sorting. Furthermore (multi)maps (associative arrays) and (multi)sets are
provided, all of which export compatible interfaces. Therefore it is possible, using
templates, to write generic algorithms that work with any container or on any sequence
defined by iterators. As in C, the features of the library are accessed by using the
#include directive to include a standard header. C++ provides sixty-nine standard
headers, of which nineteen are deprecated.

Using the standard library--for example, using std::vector or std::string instead of a C-

style array--can help lead to safer and more scalable software.

The STL was originally a third-party library from HP and later SGI, before its
incorporation into the C++ standard. The standard does not refer to it as "STL", as it is
merely a part of the standard library, but many people still use that term to distinguish it
from the rest of the library (input/output streams, internationalization, diagnostics, the C
library subset, etc.).

Most C++ compilers provide an implementation of the C++ standard library, including
the STL. Compiler-independent implementations of the STL, such as STLPort, also exist.
Other projects also produce various custom implementations of the C++ standard library
and the STL with various design goals.

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Features introduced in C++

Compared to the C language, C++ introduced extra features, including declarations as
statements, function-like casts, new/delete, bool, reference types, inline functions,
default arguments, function overloading, namespaces, classes (including all class-related
features such as inheritance, member functions, virtual functions, abstract classes, and
constructors), operator overloading, templates, the :: operator, exception handling, and
runtime type identification.
Contrary to popular belief, C++ did not introduce the const keyword first. Const was
formally added to C shortly before it was adopted by C++.

C++ also performs more type checking than C in several cases (see "Incompatibility with
C" below).

Comments starting with two slashes ("//") were originally part of C's predecessor,
BCPL, and were reintroduced in C++.

Several features of C++ were later adopted by C, including declarations in for loops,
C++-style comments (using the // symbol), and inline, though the C99 definition of the
inline keyword is not compatible with its C++ definition. However, C99 also introduced
features that do not exist in C++, such as variadic macros and better handling of arrays as
parameters; some C++ compilers may implement some of these features as extensions,
but others are incompatible with existing C++ features.

A very common source of confusion is a subtle terminology issue: because of its

derivation from C, in C++ the term object means memory area, just like in C, and not
class instance, which is what it means in most other object oriented languages. For
example, in both C and C++, the statement int i; defines an object of type int, that is
the memory area where the value of the variable i will be stored on assignment.

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Incompatibility with C
For more details on this topic, see Compatibility of C and C++.

C++ is often considered to be a superset of C, but this is not strictly true. Most C code
can easily be made to compile correctly in C++, but there are a few differences that cause
some valid C code to be invalid in C++, or to behave differently in C++.

Perhaps the most commonly encountered difference is that C allows implicit conversion
from void* to other pointer types, but C++ does not. So, the following is valid C code:

int *i = malloc(sizeof(int) * 5); /* Implicit conversion from void*

to int* */

but to make it work in both C and C++ one would need to use an explicit cast:

int *i = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int) * 5);

Another common portability issue is that C++ defines many new keywords, such as new
and class, that may be used as identifiers (e.g. variable names) in a C program.
Some incompatibilities have been removed by the latest (C99) C standard, which now
supports C++ features such as // comments and mixed declarations and code. However,
C99 introduced a number of new features that conflict with C++ (such as variable-length
arrays, native complex-number types, and compound literals), so the languages may be
diverging more than they are converging.

In order to intermix C and C++ code, any C++ functions which are to be called from C-
compiled code must be declared as extern "C".

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Sample code
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Minimal program

This is an example of a program which does nothing. It begins executing and

immediately terminates. It consists of one thing: a main() function. The function main()
is the designated start of a C++ program.

int main()
{
}

The C++ Standard requires that main() returns type int. A program which uses any
other return type for main() is technically not Standard C++, although many compilers
do not enforce this strictly. The Standard also does not say what the return value of
main() actually means. Traditionally, it is interpreted as the return value of the program
itself. The Standard guarantees that returning zero from main() indicates successful
termination. Unsuccessful termination can be indicated by returning a nonzero value.
Some common return values are defined as macros, for example EXIT_FAILURE. This
allows each operating system to define these values differently.

If, as in this example, execution reaches the end of main() without encountering a
return statement, zero is returned implicitly. Only the main function has this implicit
return statement. In any other non-void function, reaching the end of the function without
meeting a return statement is undefined behaviour.

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Hello world program

This is an example of a Hello world program, which uses the C++ standard library (not
STL) cout facility to display a message, then terminates.

#include <ostream> // for std::endl

#include <iostream> // for std::cout

int main()
{
std::cout << "Hello World!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}

std refers to the namespace of the cout object. The std namespace provides a named
scope for objects in the C++ Standard Library. In this example, we make use of the scope
resolution operator (::) to provide the std namespace qualification of the cout object and
the endl function. Such a qualification helps to disambiguate the C++ Standard Library
cout object from any other objects or functions which may have the same name.

For more examples, see C++ examples.

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Language features
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Operators

Main article: Operators in C and C++

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Objects

C++ introduces some object-oriented (OO) features to C. It offers classes, which provide
the four features commonly present in OO (and some non-OO) languages: abstraction,
encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism. Objects are set by classes, which are
basically like a set of attributes already defined, and can be created at any time.

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Encapsulation

C++ implements encapsulation by allowing all members of a class to be declared as

either public, private, or protected. A public member of the class will be accessible to any
function. A private member will only be accessible to functions that are members of that
class and to functions and classes explicitly granted access permission by the class
("friends"). A protected member will be accessible to members of classes that inherit
from the class in addition to the class itself and any friends.

The OO principle is that all and only the functions that can access the internal
representation of a type should be encapsulated within the type definition. C++ supports
this (via member functions and friend functions), but does not enforce it: the programmer
can declare parts or all of the representation of a type to be public, and is also allowed to
make public entities that are not part of the representation of the type. Because of this,
C++ supports not just OO programming but other weaker decomposition paradigms, like
modular programming.

It is generally considered good practice to make all data private or protected, and to make
public only those functions that are part of a minimal interface for users of the class, that
hides implementation details.

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Inheritance

Inheritance from a base class may be declared as public, protected, or private. This access
specifier determines whether unrelated and derived classes can access the inherited public
and protected members of the base class. Only public inheritance corresponds to what is
usually meant by "inheritance". The other two forms are much less frequently used. If the
access specifier is omitted, inheritance is assumed to be private for a class base and
public for a struct base. Base classes may be declared as virtual; this is called virtual
inheritance. Virtual inheritance ensures that only one instance of a base class exists in the
inheritance graph, avoiding some of the ambiguity problems of multiple inheritance.

Multiple inheritance is another controversial C++ feature. Multiple inheritance allows a

class to be derived from more than one base class; this can result in a complicated graph
of inheritance relationships. For example, a "Flying Cat" class can inherit from both
"Cat" and "Flying Mammal". Some other languages, such as Java, accomplish something
similar by allowing inheritance of multiple interfaces while restricting the number of base
classes to one (interfaces, unlike classes, provide no implementation of function
members).

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Polymorphism

See also: Polymorphism in object-oriented programming

C++ supports several kinds of static (compile-time) and dynamic (run-time)

polymorphism. Compile-time polymorphism does not allow for certain run-time
decisions, while run-time polymorphism typically incurs more of a performance penalty.
Static polymorphism

Function overloading

Function overloading allows programs to declare multiple functions with the same
name. The functions are distinguished by the number and types of their formal
parameters. Thus, the same function name can refer to different functions depending on
the context in which it is used.

Operator overloading

Similarly, operator overloading allows programs to define certain operators (such as +,

!=, <, or &) to result in a function call that depends on the types of the operands they are
used on.

Template functions and classes

Templates in C++ provide a sophisticated mechanism for writing generic, polymorphic

code. In particular, through the Curiously Recurring Template Pattern it's possible to
implement a form of static polymorphism that closely mimics the syntax for overriding
virtual methods (a dynamic polymorphism technique described below).

Dynamic polymorphism

Polymorphism through inheritance

Variable pointers (and references) of a base class type in C++ can refer to objects of any
derived classes of that type in addition to objects exactly matching the variable type. This
allows arrays or other containers of a given type of object to hold multiple types of
objects within it, which cannot be done otherwise in C++. Because assignment of values
to variables usually occurs at run-time, this is necessarily a run-time phenomenon.

C++ also provides a dynamic_cast operator, which allows the program to safely attempt
conversion of an object into an object of a more specific object type (as opposed to
conversion to a more general type, which is always allowed). This feature relies run-time
type information. Objects known to be of a certain specific type can also be cast to that
type without dynamic_cast, which is less safe but does not require compiler support for
run-time type information.

Virtual member functions

Through virtual member functions, different objects that share a common base class
may all support an operation in different ways. The member functions implemented by
the derived class are said to override the same member functions of the base class. In
contrast with function overloading, the parameters for a given member function are
always exactly the same number and type. Only the type of the object for which this
method is called varies. In addition to standard member functions, operator overloads and
destructors can also be virtual.

By virtue of inherited objects being polymorphic, it may not be possible for the compiler
to determine the type of the object at compile time. The decision is therefore put off until
runtime, and is called dynamic dispatch. In this way, the most specific implementation of
the function is called, according to the actual run-time type of the object. In C++, this is
commonly done using virtual function tables. This may sometimes be bypassed by
prepending a fully qualified class name before the function call, but calls to virtual
functions are in general always resolved at run time.

An example
#include <iostream>

class Bird // the "generic" base class

{
public:
virtual void OutputName() {std::cout << "a bird";}
virtual ~Bird() {}
};

class Swan : public Bird // Swan derives from Bird

{
public:
void OutputName() {std::cout << "a swan";} // overrides virtual
function
};

int main()
{
Bird* myBird = new Swan; // Declares a pointer to a generic Bird,
// and sets it pointing to a newly-created
Swan.

myBird->OutputName(); // This will output "a swan", not "a bird".

delete myBird;

return 0;
}

This example program makes use of virtual functions, polymorphism, and inheritance to
derive new, more specific objects from a base class. In this case, the base class is a Bird,
and the more specific Swan is made.

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Criticism
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C++ has been the subject of much debate. Some of the most commonly levelled
criticisms include:

• Since C++ is based on, and largely compatible with, C, it also inherits most of the
criticisms levelled at that language.
• Taken as a whole C++ is a large and complicated language, and so is difficult to
fully master. However, by its multi-paradigm approach programmers are free to
use the subset of C++ features that they're comfortable with, adding new features
to their repertoire only as required and at their own pace.
• It is extremely difficult to write a good C++ parser (see [2]). This is partly
because the C++ grammar is not LALR(1). Because of that, there are very few
tools for analyzing or performing non-trivial transformations (e.g., refactoring) of
existing code.
• C++ is sometimes compared unfavorably with single-paradigm object-oriented
languages such as Java, on the basis that it allows programmers to "mix and
match" object-oriented and procedural programming, rather than strictly enforcing
a single paradigm. This is part of a wider debate on the relative merits of the two
programming styles.
• The abundance of language features can lead less experienced programmers to
bring unnecessarily advanced or complicated solutions to simple problems.
• For embedded systems C++ is sometimes considered too bloated, especially for
language features like exceptions and RTTI which add to code size. Thus
Embedded C++ standard has been specified, but has also received criticism for
leaving out useful parts of the language that incur no runtime penalty[citation needed].

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See also

Wikibooks has a manual, textbook or guide to this subject:

C++ Programming

Look up C++ in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• C++ structure
• Comparison of Java and C++
• Design pattern
• List of C++ compilers and integrated development environments
• Template metaprogramming
• Name mangling
• OpenC++
• Operators in C and C++
• Programming paradigm
• Significantly Prettier and Easier C++ Syntax
• Comparison of programming languages
• Memory Management Techniques in C++