C++ Topics and Explanations
C is a subset of C++

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Posted by Lourdes Hernandez on December 08, 1999 at 11:59:53:

C is a subset of C++

In the 1980s Bjarne Stroustrup, a computer scientist,
took the "C" language and added features of another older
language, Simula 67, to help him create a language that would
allow him to easily simulate things he was working on. It was
called "C++," which is an incremental advance over "C."
Hence the name, "C++."

C is a computer language defined by ISO and ANSI, the
international and American standards bodies. You will
most often hear references to ANSI C, since the ANSI
committee first standardized C and the ISO committee
basically kept the same standard intact. It was originally
designed for systems programming because it allows programmer
to write efficient code. C compilers are found on just about
every Unix system and are now available with most operating
systems.

C++ is a language that grew out of C. It began as a
version of C with extensions for object-oriented programming
(OOP) and grew into its own language. C++ is basically an
extension of C's abilities. C++ supports every desirable
behavior and most of the undesirable ones of C too.
The only difference is that C++ provides general language
improvements and Object Oriented functionality. C++ is a
subset of C because it has many of the same features such
as efficiency, closeness to the machine and a variety of
built-in types. This allows experienced C programmers to
make the smooth transition to C++ without having to learn
an entirely new language.

A few examples of the way C++ is an improvement of C are:

· Comment lines in C use "/* */", while in C++ you
could just use "//" per line plus it uses C's "/ **/".
· In C, constants are specified using #define while
C++ allows any variable to be declared a constant by
using "const" and uses #define.
· C++ also allows the program to use the "Swap"
function, statements can be placed anywhere in the program.
· C++ is able to overload functions and operators

All in all, the many new features of C++ proves that it
is a better version of C. C++ has a stronger type
checking by checking arguments to functions and reduces
syntactic errors by reference types. It also allows the
programmer to create their own classes. If a compiler
does not say it can compile ANSI C, most C programs are
valid C++ programs and you can probably use it anyway.
There are some cases where valid C programs are not valid
C++ programs, but these are rare.




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