bs@alice.UucP (Bjarne Stroustrup) (02/28/86)
> From: sdy@ssc-bee.UUCP (Steven D Yee) > Newsgroups: net.lang.c++ > Subject: C++ reference request > Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA > > I've been noticing the c++ articles in net.lang.c and now that > there is this group could someone please send me a reference > (or pointer too) that gives a general overview of C++ as a language > I have no knowledge of it at all but would like to learn. > > also is it commercially available? how bout cross-compiling to > an MC68020 & 68881? Ok, it is time for another dump of general C++ information: With very minor exceptions C is a subset of C++. The key concept added to C to get C++ is a Simula-like class. C++ is link compatible with C. No run time efficiency is lost compared to C. C++ - is a better C - function argument type checking and coercion - scoped & types constants - inline functions - overloaded function names - free store operators (new & delete) ... - supports Data Abstraction - data hiding - optional guaranteed initialization (constructors) - optional guaranteed cleanup (destructors) - operator overloading - references ... - supports Object Oriented Programming - derived classes (single inheritance) - virtual functions You can read about the language in Bjarne Stroustrup: The C++ Programming Language Addison Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-12078-X 336 Pages. Recommended price $22.95 You get an implementation from AT&T Software Sales and Marketing Post Office Box 25000 Greensboro, North Carolina 27420 (800) 828-UNIX or (919) 279-3666) Or AT&T Unix Pacific Co.,Ltd. Nippon Press Center Bldg. 2-2-1, Uchisaiwai-cho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 Japan Or UNIX Europe Limited, 27A Carlton Drive, London SW15 2BS, England. Tel: +44 1 785-6972, fax: +44 1 785-6916, EUnet: mcvax!ukc!uel!uel. They charge universities $250 others $2K (so, yes, it is commercially available). The main part of implementation is a compiler front-end that translates C++ into C. This front-end (called ``The AT&T C++ Translator'' or colloquially, cfront) performs all syntax and type checking, the underlying C compiler is used as a code generator only. This two stage compilation process has two main effect: - errors are found about 3 times faster by the C++ compiler than by the C compiler. - when there is no bugs the compilation takes 50% to 100% longer than for a C program. The version shipped by AT&T is for a VAX or an AT&T 3B running UNIX (SysV and BSD). Once you have it running on such a machine porting to any machine with a good C compiler is easy provided the target has - enough memory (about 1Mb to compile cfront) - long names (both in the C compiler and the linker) Porting cfront without first bringing C++ up on a VAX or 3B is possible, but probably hard work. C++ is in use on - Amdahls - AT&T 3Bs - M68Ks (Suns, Apollos, etc.) - Pyramids - VAXs and several other other UNIX boxes. - Bjarne Stroustrup (AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill)