getting started with C++

Hello friends, as mentioned previously here that this time I will be writing about C++ programming, I am going to start it from this post and now on. In this post I will start with the history of C++ language and later on I will let you know how to get started with C++ programming.

Brief history of C++

The C++ programming language has a history going back to 1979, when Bjarne Stroustrup was doing work for his Ph.D. thesis. One of the languages Stroustrup had the opportunity to work with was a language called Simula, which as the name implies is a language primarily designed for simulations. The Simula 67 language – which was the variant that Stroustrup worked with – is regarded as the first language to support the object-oriented programming paradigm. Stroustrup found that this paradigm was very useful for software development, however the Simula language was far too slow for practical use.

Shortly thereafter, he began work on “C with Classes”, which as the name implies was meant to be a superset of the C language. His goal was to add object-oriented programming into the C language, which was and still is a language well-respected for its portability without sacrificing speed or low-level functionality. His language included classes, basic inheritance,inliningdefault function arguments, and strong type checking in addition to all the features of the C language.



In 1985, Stroustrup’s reference to the language entitled The C++ Programming Language was published. That same year, C++ was implemented as a comercial product. The language was not officially standardized yet, making the book a very important reference. The language was updated again in 1989 to include protected and static members, as well as inheritance from several classes.

In 1990, The Annotated C++ Reference Manual was released. The same year, Borland’s Turbo C++ compiler would be released as a commercial product. Turbo C++ added a plethora of additional libraries which would have a considerable impact on C++’s development. Although Turbo C++’s last stable release was in 2006, the compiler is still widely used.





What do you need to get started?

As I always believe to start programming in any language first what you need is  enthusiasm in it. Than it comes the ability of building logic for a definite problem. If you have both of these I think you are quiet ready for starting programming in any language.

Now coming to the thing that you need technically. Basically a compiler and a editor are enough for C++ but I recommend using a software that has a good GUI(Graphical User Interface) which makes the work easy (We love to make our life more than it requires :D). I personally use a software named CodeBlocks. You can use DevC++ or TurboC++ according to your choice.

I will guide you how to make CodeBlocks ready and its interface.

Here is the download link for CodeBlocks. Download links for all the OS is given there. For the windows users I would recommend to download codeblocks-10.05mingw-setup.exe.

1. Interface of the software will look like this

CodeBlocks Screen

2. Then press Create a new project like in the following screen.

3.  Then a new window will pop. From that Windows selec console application and click on Go.

4. After that from the next window select C++ (As we a re talking about C++ here).

5. Then you will  see a new window. First you will see that the Project name and the Folder to create project in this two fields are blank. Fill those two positions first. It is to be noted that each time you create an we project you will see the same path in Folder to create project in section. Actually each time you create a project there will be a new folder created in the folder you select. So select such a folder where you want to keep your all project altogether.

6. On the next window you will see a list of compilers. I personally use GNU GCC compiler. you can use any of the compilers.

7. Then click on Finish. After that you will see a blank window. From the left panel double click on the Workspace. Under the Workspace section you will see the name of your project. Under that you will see a sub-section(or folder) there will be a file named main.cpp. Double click on the that you will see a tab named main.cpp. There will be a sample code already written there that prints “Hello World!”. Remove the default code and write your own. Compile(build) it by clicking  and run it by clicking 

Now you are prepared to know the unknown and solve the unsolved. 🙂

Happy coding…