Learning C++ / PDF (free)

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Learning C/C++

Rules of thumb.

Here is a set of "rules" you might consider while learning C++. As you get more proficient you can evolve them into something suitable for your kind of applications and your style of programming. They are deliberately very simple, so they lack detail. Don't take them too literally. To write a good program takes intelligence, taste, and patiance. You are not going to get it right the first time; experiment!

When you program, you create a concrete representation of the ideas in your solution to some problem. Let the structure of the program reflect those ideas as directly as possible:

If you can think of "it" as a separate idea, make it a class.
if you can think of "it" as a separate entity, make it an object of some class.
If two classes have something significant in common, make the commonality a base class
If a class is a container of objects, make it a template

When you define a class that does not implement a mathematical entity like a matrix or a complex number, or a low-level such as a linked list:

Don't use global data
Don't use global (nonmember) functions.
Don't use public data memebers
Don't use friends, execpt to avoid 1,2, or 3.
Don't access data members pf another object directly.
Don't put a "type field" in a class; use virtual functions.
Don't use inline functions, except as a significant optimization.

Learning C/C++
Part One

Getting Started with C++.

I will show you a very small program and then explain how it works.
/*A small program */
#include

void main(void)
{
cout << "Hello World\n";
}
This program will print Hello World to the screen.
You should from the very beginning learn to write comments of what is what, because when you have a very long program and and you haven't looked at it for month it is very easy to forget what the parts really do. There for you have the /* and */ that marks the beginning and end of an comment.
The next statement:
#include
represents one of C's unique features, knows as a preprocessor statement.
A preprocessor statement is like a precompile instruction. In this case, the statement instructs the compiler to retrieve the code stored in the predefined iostream.h file into the source code on the line requested. (The iostream.h file is called a header file).
Under the #include statement comes the main function:
void main(void)
{
.
.
.
}
If you wonder why you have to write void main(void), well there is a very simple reason: You have too. The program must have a main function.

In this function there is a statement:

cout << "Hello World\n";
The first cout pronounced see-out is a C++ function like in Basic print.
The notation << indicates that the proposition will send the string to cout - the symbol points in the direction that the information floats.
Everything you want to be send to the screen has to be within " ".
The \n is a line feed and will generate a new line.
the ; indicates end of the string.

Exercises:
1. Make a program that says: Hi John Doe!.
2. Make a program that says:
I am John Doe
I really like lasagna.............

Learning C++ / PDF (free)