C++: "The C with Classes"

From a basic overview to its features and applications

We will understand about basic features and application of C++ programming language in this article for those who want to understand the basic overview of the programming language.

Overview:-

C++ is a general-purpose, computer programming language as an extension of C or “C with classes”. C++ is a combination of both low-level & high-level language – a Middle-Level Language.

C++ extends C with object-oriented, functional, and generic features. The “double-plus” comes from the increment operator from C. C++ was developed to bring features from older languages to faster, more powerful platforms.

C++ occupies a similar area in the market as C, including systems programming and low-level hardware development. Over the years, the C++ standard libraries and specification have been expanded considerably, leading to criticism that it has become over-complicated and difficult to learn.

C++ was designed with a bias toward system programming and embedded, resource-constrained software and large systems, with performance, efficiency, and flexibility of use as its design highlights. C++ has also been found useful in many other contexts, with key strengths being software infrastructure and resource-constrained applications, including desktop applications, video games, servers (e.g. E-commerce, Web search, or SQL servers), and performance-critical applications (e.g. telephone switches or space probes)

Brief History:-

In 1979, Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist, began work on "C with Classes", was renamed C++ in 1983. The motivation for creating a new language originated from Stroustrup's experience in programming for his PhD 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 to be suitable for large software development.

As he wanted a flexible & a dynamic language which was similar to C with all its features, but with additionality of active type checking, basic inheritance, default functioning argument, classes, inlining, etc. and hence C with Classes (C++) was launched.

Features Of C++:-

1. OOP (Object-Oriented Programming)

C++ is an object-oriented language, unlike C which is a procedural language. This is one of the most important features of C++. It employs the use of objects while programming. These objects help you implement real-time problems based on data abstraction, data encapsulation, data hiding, and polymorphism. We have briefly discussed all the 5 main concepts of object-oriented programming.

The OOP concepts are:-

Data abstraction: Data abstraction is an act of representing the important features of data without including the background details or the method applied to obtain it.

Data encapsulation: Data encapsulation is nothing but a process to implement data abstraction by wrapping up the data and functions into an exclusive block.

Inheritance: The term inheritance refers to transferring the properties of the parent class to the child class. We can implement the basic idea of inheritance by creating more than one class, which we formally refer to as derived classes by linking them with what we call the base class. This concept reduces the redundancy of the program and makes it easy to transfer/copy the properties of one class to another

Data hiding: Data hiding refers to protecting data from unauthorized access. It is basically responsible for securing the data. It is important to note that data encapsulation is different from data hiding as encapsulation mainly focuses on shifting the focus on important data than explaining its complex nature.

Polymorphism: The word poly means ‘many’ and morphism means ‘forms’. Clearly, polymorphism refers to displaying that data in more than one form.

2. Platform or Machine Independent/ Portable

In simple terms, portability refers to using the same piece of code in varied environments.

3. Simple

When we start off with a new language, we expect to understand in depth. The simple context of C++ gives an appeal to programmers, who are eager to learn a new programming language.

If you are already familiar with C, then you don’t need to worry about facing any trouble while working in C++. The syntax of C++ is almost similar to that of C. Afterall C++ is referred to as “C with classes”.

4. High-level programming language

It is important to note that C++ is a high-level programming language, unlike C which is a mid-level programming language. It makes it easier for the user to work in C++ as a high-level language as we can closely associate it with the human-comprehensible language, that is, English.

5. Popular

After learning C, it is the base language for many other popular programming languages which supports the feature of object-oriented programming. Bjarne Stroustrup found Simula 67, the first object-oriented language ever, lacking simulations and decided to develop C++.

6. Case sensitive

Just like C, it is pretty clear that the C++ programming language treats the uppercase and lowercase characters in a different manner. For instance, the meaning of the keyword ‘cout’ changes if we write it as ‘Cout’ or “COUT”. Other programming languages like HTML and MySQL are not case sensitive.

7. Compiler-Based

Unlike Java and Python that are interpreter-based, C++ is a compiler-based language and hence it a relatively much faster than Python and Java.

8. DMA (Dynamic Memory Allocation)

Since C++ supports the use of pointers, it allows us to allocate memory dynamically. We may even use constructors and destructors while working with classes and objects in C++.

9. Existence of Libraries

The C++ programming language offers a library full of in-built functions that make things easy for the programmer. These functions can be accessed by including suitable header files.

10. Speed

As discussed earlier, C++ is compiler-based hence it is much faster than other programming languages like Python and Java that are interpreter-based.

Applications:-

There are several benefits of using C++ for developing applications and many applications product based developed in this language only because of its features and security. C++ has been widely and effectively used in areas like:-          

• Applications
• Games
• Web Browser
• Database Access
• Media Access
• Compilers
• Operating Systems
• Scanning

It is used for medical and engineering applications, Computer-aided design systems. These applications are like MRI scans machines, CAM systems that are mainly used in hospitals, local, state and national government, and other departments for construction and mining, etc. applications of C++ is considered as a first preferred language to use among the developer when performance is considered for any developing application.