Book Image

Beginning C++ Programming

By : Richard Grimes
Book Image

Beginning C++ Programming

By: Richard Grimes

Overview of this book

C++ has come a long way and is now adopted in several contexts. Its key strengths are its software infrastructure and resource-constrained applications, including desktop applications, servers, and performance-critical applications, not to forget its importance in game programming. Despite its strengths in these areas, beginners usually tend to shy away from learning the language because of its steep learning curve. The main mission of this book is to make you familiar and comfortable with C++. You will finish the book not only being able to write your own code, but more importantly, you will be able to read other projects. It is only by being able to read others' code that you will progress from a beginner to an advanced programmer. This book is the first step in that progression. The first task is to familiarize you with the structure of C++ projects so you will know how to start reading a project. Next, you will be able to identify the main structures in the language, functions, and classes, and feel confident being able to identify the execution flow through the code. You will then become aware of the facilities of the standard library and be able to determine whether you need to write a routine yourself, or use an existing routine in the standard library. Throughout the book, there is a big emphasis on memory and pointers. You will understand memory usage, allocation, and access, and be able to write code that does not leak memory. Finally, you will learn about C++ classes and get an introduction to object orientation and polymorphism.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Internationalization

The <locale> header contains the classes for localizing how time, dates, and currency are formatted, and also to provide localized rules for string comparisons and ordering.

The C Runtime Library also has global functions to carry out localization. However, it is important in the following discussion that we distinguish between C functions and the C locale. The C locale is the default locale, including the rules for localization, used in C and C++ programs and it can be replaced with a locale for a country or culture. The C Runtime Library provides functions to change the locale, as does the C++ Standard Library.

Since the C++ Standard Library provides classes for localization, this means that you can create more than one object representing a locale. A locale object can be created in a function and can only be used there, or it can be applied globally...