C++ Introduction

C++ or Cpp is a human language (High-level language) that people can read and understand but it needs a translator (Compiler) to convert it to machine language that the machine (ex: Computer) can understand and execute.

Why it called C++

To answer this question we need to know that it was not the first language invented to program machines, but actually, in 1969 Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson developed "B" language at Bell Labs then in 1971 Dennis Ritchie started to improve B language and he called it New B or NB to write the Unix kernel and he added a great feature to it like int, char data type, arrays, and pointers than in 1973 the B language renamed to C language and struct data type and preprocessor features have been added to it, in 1978 Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie published the first edition of the C programming language, in 1979 Bjarne Stroustrup began work on C with Classes to add new features like classes, derived classes, inlining, and default arguments and in 1982 Stroustrup started to develop a successor to the C with Classes, which he named C++, to add more features like virtual functions, function and operator overloading, and references, and the developing still working until this moment.

We will see the development of the features for Cpp during the next topics.

C++ standards

Since releasing C++ in 1982 as an extension of C language it started to enhance to be a safer language to use rather than the C language, and during this journey, it has been officially released multiple times, these releases were called Standardisation. These standard versions start officially in 1998 after that in 2003 as C++03, then in 2011 as C++11, then in 2014 as C++14 , then in 2017 as C++17, then in 2020 as C++20, then in 2023 as C++23, with a constant standard every 3 years.

The Classic C++

So we can consider any release for C++ before C++11 in 2011 to be called the Classic C++ because it was a small change from the C language itself, and from c++11 it is called modern c++ and during our learning journey, we will know why and when more features were added to C++ language and released in every C++ standard.

Why Use C++

C++ is widely used in today’s embedded systems, browsers, graphical user interfaces, music players, video games, operating systems, compilers, system drivers, databases, and cloud computing, it supports object-oriented programming which lowers the development cost by giving a clear structure to the program and allowing the reusability of code, and Its syntax is close to C# and Java so it is easy for the programmer to switch between these languages, plus It is efficient and close to machine programming.

Who is using C++

Many popular systems use C++ for implementing the critical part of their system like Google in the Google Chromium browser and Google file system, Microsoft in most parts of Microsoft Windows, Adobe in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premier.

So are you ready to start the C++ learning journey? then let’s jump on the journey to the next topics.