Book Image

The C++ Workshop

By : Dale Green, Kurt Guntheroth, Shaun Ross Mitchell
Book Image

The C++ Workshop

By: Dale Green, Kurt Guntheroth, Shaun Ross Mitchell

Overview of this book

C++ is the backbone of many games, GUI-based applications, and operating systems. Learning C++ effectively is more than a matter of simply reading through theory, as the real challenge is understanding the fundamentals in depth and being able to use them in the real world. If you're looking to learn C++ programming efficiently, this Workshop is a comprehensive guide that covers all the core features of C++ and how to apply them. It will help you take the next big step toward writing efficient, reliable C++ programs. The C++ Workshop begins by explaining the basic structure of a C++ application, showing you how to write and run your first program to understand data types, operators, variables and the flow of control structures. You'll also see how to make smarter decisions when it comes to using storage space by declaring dynamic variables during program runtime. Moving ahead, you'll use object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques such as inheritance, polymorphism, and class hierarchies to make your code structure organized and efficient. Finally, you'll use the C++ standard library?s built-in functions and templates to speed up different programming tasks. By the end of this C++ book, you will have the knowledge and skills to confidently tackle your own ambitious projects and advance your career as a C++ developer.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Summary

Pointers and dynamic variables are two of the most valuable tools in the basic C++ toolkit. They are worth the effort it takes to understand them and use them well. We learned that C++ does not enforce any discipline regarding the creation or deletion of dynamic variables. Developers can document the ownership of dynamic variables to bring some order to this chaos. We learned that a powerful way to manage ownership of dynamic variables is through the use of smart pointers, which tie the dynamic variable to an ordinary variable that is destroyed in a well-defined place. C++ is a powerful programming language because it offers a spectrum of choices, from bare-bones unsafe programming to expensive, automated smart library classes.

In the next chapter, we're going to take a deeper dive into the class type and object-oriented programming.