C++ Tutorial: Introduction, Instructions of use.

Introduction Instructions of use

To whom is this tutorial directed?

This tutorial is for those people who want to learn programming in C++ and not necessarily have previous knowledge of any other programming language. Of course any knowledge of other programming languages or any general computer knowledge can be useful to better understand this tutorial, although it is not essential.

If you are familiar with C language you can take the first 3 parts of this tutorial (from 1.1 to 3.4) as a review, since they mainly explain the C part of C++.

Part 4 describes object-oriented programming.

Part 5 mostly describes the new features introduced by ANSI-C++ standard.

Structure of this tutorial

The tutorial is divided in 6 parts and each part in several different sections. You can access to any section directly from the main index or begin the tutorial from any point and follow the links at the bottom of each section.

Many sections include an additional page with specific examples that describe the use of the new acquired knowledge from that chapter. It is recommended to read these examples and to be able to understand each of the code lines that compose it before passing to the next chapter.

A good way to gain experience with a programming language is by modifying and adding new functionalities by your own to the example programs that you can fully understand. Don't be scared to modify the examples provided with this tutorial. I still have had no reports of anyone harming his/her computer due to that.

Compatibility Notes

The ANSI-C++ standard accepted as international standard is relatively recent. It was published on November 1997, nevertheless the C++ language exists from long ago (1980s) and therefore there are many compilers which do not support all the new capacities included in ANSI-C++, specially those ones previous to the publication of the standard.

During this tutorial, the concepts added by ANSI-C++ standard that are not included in most older C++ compilers are indicated by one of the following icons:

<- new in ANSI C++

Also, given the enormous extension that the C language enjoys (language from which C++ derives), it will also be included an icon when the topic explained is a concept whose implementation is clearly different between C and C++ or that is exclusive of C++.

<- different implementation between C and C++

Compilers

The examples included in this tutorial are all of them console programs. That means they use text to communicate with the user and to show results.

All C++ compilers support the compilation of console programs. If you want to get more information on how to compile the examples appearing in this tutorial, check the document Compilation of Console Programs, where you will find specific information about this subject for several C++ compilers existing in the market.

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1.1 - Structure of a C++ program