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

In this first chapter, we've learned a little about the history of C++, covered its various applications throughout multiple industries, and deconstructed an example program. This allowed us to identify the core components and concepts that comprise a C++ application.

First, we discussed the history of the language, looking at the problems that it was designed to solve. With that context in place, we deconstructed an example application, identifying the key features of a C++ application.

With those key concepts now identified, we moved onto looking at each in greater detail. We learned some common C++ keywords and what they do. We looked at preprocessor directives and how we can use them to perform operations before our code is compiled. We then looked at basic IO statements, using std::cin and std::cout to get information in and out of our applications. And finally, we looked at functions, ways in which we can encapsulate behaviors into nice re-usable blocks of code.

To put all of this into practice, we ended with a programming task in which we constructed an application from a set brief. By developing an application that allows users to input their details, and then sorting them into groups, we put into practice the skills we've learned.

With this fundamental understanding of the anatomy of a C++ application, we can now start to delve into C++'s language features and tools. Gaining this initial understanding of an application was necessary so that we understand how our applications are built and run. Next, we're going to be looking at control flow—the means by which we control which code executes and when, allowing us to build bigger and more complex applications.