The \(C++\) programming language. (Repr. with corrections). (English) Zbl 0609.68011

Stroustrup, Bjarne

Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science. Reading, Massachusetts etc.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. VIII, 328 p. (1986).

The book deals with a detailed description of the new language \(C++\). This language can be characterized as an object-oriented language of lower level - many features for increasing efficiency are provided.
The \(C++\) language is a superset of C, as it holds all features of C, namely it has ability to enforce efficiency requirements, e.g. access to bits, bytes, addresses etc. \(C++\) augments C constructions in the direction of more safe programming by introducing the class concept for data abstraction. In this way \(C++\) provides much better means for the type checking and for the division of the programming task into better manageable units.
The book is ingeniously divided into chapters. Assuming that most of the readers come from the C-family, ”Tour of \(C++''\) tells them the basic philosophy of the new language, compared to the old one. All the language constructs are well documented by examples.
The most interesting chapters deal with the ”object oriented” features of \(C++\). Even these parts are fruitfully intermixed by the efficiency issues. So the class concept with the member functions including constructor/desctructor couple is enriched by friends and union clauses. The reference manual of \(C++\) is also included.

Reviewer: M.Benesovsky

MSC:

68-01	Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to computer science
68N01	General topics in the theory of software

Keywords:

efficiency features; object-oriented language