History of C++ Language
History of C++
Basically, the concept of C++ is introduced in the early ’80s (1982) by a software engineer Bjarne Stroustrup was doing work for his Ph.D. thesis in AT& T Bell Labs(American Telephone& Telegraph), located in Murray Hills, NewJersey, USA
The Birth of C++
In the early 1970s, Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist, developed a language called “C with Classes” as an extension to the C programming language. Stroustrup aimed to enhance C’s capabilities by adding support for object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts. This new language formed the foundation of what would later become C++.
The Evolution of C++
In 1983, the language was renamed to C++ to reflect the new features and improvements introduced over time. Stroustrup published “The C++ Programming Language,” a book that served as a comprehensive guide to the language and gained widespread popularity among programmers. The evolution of C++ continued with the release of various standards, each bringing new features, optimizations, and bug fixes to the language.
Definition of C++
According to Stroustrup C++ is a general-purpose, high-level, compiler-based and objected-oriented Programming Language.
Stroustrup is very interested in the C language because of its powerful features like –
- Multipurpose programming,
- Portability
- Pointers
- Dynamic memory allocation,
- Midlevel flavour
Motivation from Simula67
- The Major disadvantage of the C language is, data is freely moving around the functions.
- Due to this, It is not able to design super secure applications because of the
absence of data hiding features - To avoid this problem the concept of
classesis added to traditional C language which was picked fromSimula67 - Hence It was named as
C with classesinitially.
Naming as C++
Initially, people call this language as
- C with classes
- Superset of C
- Extension of C
- Advanced version of C
- Increment of C and many names…
To avoid this confusion in 1983 it was renamed as C++ from C with classes
Object-Oriented Programming
- C++ main objective is to mix the flavors of data hiding with C to design super secure applications
- Object Oriented programming is a programming style that is associated with the concept of Class, Objects and various other concepts revolving around these two, like Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction, Encapsulation etc.
- These ideas made C++ powerful to design both enterprise and system applications
Unity (game engine) and unreal engines which are two most popular platforms to write games are codes in C++/C#
Standardization and Portability
To ensure consistency and compatibility across different platforms, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) started working on standardizing the C++ language. The first standardized version, known as C++98 or C++03, was released in 1998. Subsequent revisions, such as C++11, C++14, C++17, and the latest C++20, brought numerous improvements, including enhanced language features, libraries, and performance optimizations.
C++’s standardized nature has contributed to its portability, allowing developers to write code that can run on various operating systems and architectures. This characteristic has made C++ a popular choice for building applications ranging from desktop software to embedded systems and game development.
C++ vs. Other Languages
When comparing C++ with other programming languages, several factors come into play. C++ excels in terms of performance, as it allows fine-grained control over system resources. It also provides a low-level programming model that enables developers to optimize code for speed and memory usage.
However, C++ complexity and syntax can be challenging for beginners or developers coming from higher-level languages. Moreover, languages like Python and JavaScript offer faster development cycles and greater simplicity for certain applications.
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