C++ Notebook

Hello World!

Here's an example of probably the simplest C++ program that can yet be:

// file: `main.cpp`
// C++ uses `#include` to import external libraries
#include <cstdio> 

int main() {
    printf("Hello, world!"); // `printf` procedure is part of `cstdio` library
    return 0;
}

Running Hello World!

Use your favorite compiler (gcc, clang) to generate an output program

Here's an example Makefile task:

run-hello-world:
    clang++ src/main.cpp -o bin/hello-world
    bin/hello-world

Compiler toolchain

The C++ compiler toolchain is in three parts. The source code goes through three stages:

preprocessor - basic source code manipulation is done, such as replacing #include statements with actual source code that was imported (flattens the program). Each source file that the preprocessor works on produces a translation unit which is fed into the next stage, the compilation stage
compiler - reads a set of translation units from the previous stage, and generates object files. Object files are an intermediate language (IL). Each translation unit corresponds to one object file. The output of a compiler is non-human readable format
linker - generates programs from object files from previous stage. Linkers grab your object files and find external libraries that you are referencing and then merge them together into a cohesive output program.

C++ Compilers

Linux:

clang++
gcc

MacOs:

clang++ (via XCode)
gcc (install via Homebrew)

Language standards

C++ has multiple successive versions with added features in each. To switch to a specific C++ standard, tell the compiler to do so like so:

clang++ --std=C++11 main.cpp -o main

C++ language attributes

Object-oriented language - its bread and butter is to support object orientation, building up on plain C
Strongly-typed language - every primitive and object has a defined type

stdlib - C++ standard library, which is split into three parts:

containers
iterators
algorithms