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59 views3 pages

0.3 - Introduction To C - C++ - Learn C++

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kanybek.dev
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© © All Rights Reserved
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0.

3 — Introduction to C/C++
 ALEX 1  AUGUST 17, 2023

Before C++, there was C


The C language was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Telephone laboratories, primarily as a
systems programming language (a language to write operating systems with). Ritchie’s primary goals were
to produce a minimalistic language that was easy to compile, allowed efficient access to memory,
produced efficient code, and was self-contained (not reliant on other programs). For a high-level language,
it was designed to give the programmer a lot of control, while still encouraging platform (hardware and
operating system) independence (that is, the code didn’t have to be rewritten for each platform).

C ended up being so efficient and flexible that in 1973, Ritchie and Ken Thompson rewrote most of the
Unix operating system using C. Many previous operating systems had been written in assembly. Unlike
assembly, which produces programs that can only run on specific CPUs, C has excellent portability,
allowing Unix to be easily recompiled on many different types of computers and speeding its adoption. C
and Unix had their fortunes tied together, and C’s popularity was in part tied to the success of Unix as an
operating system.

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie published a book called “The C Programming Language”. This
book, which was commonly known as K&R (after the authors’ last names), provided an informal
specification for the language and became a de facto standard. When maximum portability was needed,
programmers would stick to the recommendations in K&R, because most compilers at the time were
implemented to K&R standards.

In 1983, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) formed a committee to establish a formal
standard for C. In 1989 (committees take forever to do anything), they finished, and released the C89
standard, more commonly known as ANSI C. In 1990 the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) adopted ANSI C (with a few minor modifications). This version of C became known as C90. Compilers
eventually became ANSI C/C90 compliant, and programs desiring maximum portability were coded to this
standard.

In 1999, the ISO committee released a new version of C called C99. C99 adopted many features which had
already made their way into compilers as extensions, or had been implemented in C++.

C++
C++ (pronounced “see plus plus”) was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs as an extension to C,
starting in 1979. C++ adds many new features to the C language, and is perhaps best thought of as a
superset of C, though this is not strictly true (as C99 introduced a few features that do not exist in C++).
C++’s claim to fame results primarily from the fact that it is an object-oriented language. As for what an
“object” is and how it differs from traditional programming methods, well, we’ll cover that in later
chapters.

C++ was standardized in 1998 by the ISO committee (this means the ISO standards committee approved a
document describing the C++ language, to help ensure all compilers adhere to the same set of standards).
A minor update to the language was released in 2003 (called C++03).

Five major updates to the C++ language (C++11, C++14, C++17, C++20, and C++23) have been made since
then, each adding additional functionality. C++11 in particular added a huge number of new capabilities,
and is widely considered to be the new baseline version of the language. Future upgrades to the language
are expected every three or so years.

Each new formal release of the language is called a language standard (or language specification).
Standards are named after the year they are released in. For example, there is no C++15, because there
was no new standard in 2015.

C and C++’s philosophy


The underlying design philosophy of C and C++ can be summed up as “trust the programmer” -- which is
both wonderful and dangerous. C++ is designed to allow the programmer a high degree of freedom to do
what they want. However, this also means the language often won’t stop you from doing things that don’t
make sense, because it will assume you’re doing so for some reason it doesn’t understand. There are
quite a few pitfalls that new programmers are likely to fall into if caught unaware. This is one of the
primary reasons why knowing what you shouldn’t do in C/C++ is almost as important as knowing what
you should do.

Q: What is C++ good at?


C++ excels in situations where high performance and precise control over memory and other
resources is needed. Here are a few common types of applications that most likely would be written
in C++:

Video games
Real-time systems (e.g. for transportation, manufacturing, etc…)
High-performance financial applications (e.g. high frequency trading)
Graphical applications and simulations
Productivity / office applications
Embedded software
Audio and video processing
Artificial intelligence and neural networks

Q: Do I need to know C before I do these tutorials?


Nope! It’s perfectly fine to start with C++, and we’ll teach you everything you need to know (including
pitfalls to avoid) along the way.

Once you know C++, it should be pretty easy to learn standard C if you ever have the need. These
days, C is mostly used for niche use cases: code that runs on embedded devices, when you need to
interact with other languages that can only interface with C, etc… For most other cases, C++ is
recommended.
Next lesson
 0.4 Introduction to C++ development

 Back to table of contents

Previous lesson
 0.2 Introduction to programming languages

Links
1. https://www.learncpp.com/author/Alex/
2. https://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/introduction-to-cpp-development/
3. https://www.learncpp.com/
4. https://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/introduction-to-programming-languages/
5. https://www.learncpp.com/introduction-to-cplusplus/

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