Shortly about C++

Some people love it, some people hate it and others just don't care. One of the most popular programming languages for the last decades - C++. But before going into telling about this language, I would like to start with explaining what is programming language, not. Of course I'm not doing that, because if you don't know what is programming language, you should just stop reading here and go wait for the new episode of Sherlock, which is actually coming out today :D. And now when only interested ones are left, I can start telling the story.

And the story starts back in 1979, when some really cool guy, named Bjarne Stroustrup (picture above), didn't enjoy the languages which existed those days and decided to work on a new one - "C with classes". Obviously, he wasn't full innovator and C++ is not the very first object-oriented programming language. You didn't think so, did you? Actually the first one, was Simula. It was pretty good. It had classes, objects, inheritance etc. But why didn't our friend Stroustrup enjoy it? Because Simula was slow. Other languages were fast, but weren't convenient enough for a broad development. So he decides to create something which was fast and convenient. And he started improving C, i.e. adding new features to it (like classes and objects). The C was chosen because it was general purpose, fast, portable and widely used. So he started developing it and his creature had the name  "C with classes" or "New C". There were different names, because the standard name wasn't decided. It is always like that. Similar with children, first you make a baby and then decide on name :). So, in 1983, the programming language came out with new features (e.g. single line comment with "//")  and its final name - "C++". You know from C, that "++" is an increment operator (i.e. i++).  Stroustrup says: "the name signifies the evolutionary nature of the changes from C".

The language is being developed ever since. Shortly about releases:

• 1985 - the first commercial implementation of C++ was released
• 1989 - C++2.0 was released. New features included: multiple inheritance, abstract classes, static member functions and protected members. Later feature additions:  templates, namespaces, exceptions, new casts and boolean type.
• 2011 - C++11 was released. And 11 not because it was 11th release, as some of you might have thought, but because it was released in 2011. New features and libraries added.
• 2014 - C++14 was released. Minor fixes and new features.
• 2017 - C++17 (or also called C++1z)
• 2020 - C++20

It's already 2017 and you may be wondering when will C++17 come out. I'm not really sure, if it is officially out already, but sources already tell what to expect from it. For example, C++17 introduces  std::variant. We will now be able to declare a variable and assign it different types of data. If you are not sure, if it should be float or int, just do std::variant<float, int>, which is really convenient. Another interesting fact is it's name. Why do you think it is also called C++1z? Because everyone is a bit of procrastinator and anyone can miss the deadlines :D. Due to possible delays that may occur, there was the possibility, that it won't be released in 2017, then there is no point of calling it C++17. That is why they used "C++1z" for now, to change "z" later according to the release date. But since elementary class, we usually use "x" for unknown variables, right? Why not to use "x"(C++1x) instead of "z" here? The answer is that, they already used "x" and "y" for C++11 (C++0x/1x) and C++14 (C++1y). 

Enough with names and unnecessary talking. What makes C++ so popular?

• C++ is simply fast
• it has low level access to hardware and memory
• you can use different styles of programming (OOP, procedural, functional etc.)
• it is old, hence there are lots of libraries implemented already
• easy to embed other languages

Since C++ is fast, we can observe many game developers using it. There are many reasons, why it is fast. One and the most straight forward ones is that C++ immediately compiles the code into the object file, which can be directly executed. There is no other virtual machine or whatsoever between C++ and the processor. It gives it certain speed. Another reason, is that we have full control over memory. Thus, we decide when to make some space there, check for space or empty the space. Which gives us some advantages over other languages, i.e. Java. Java has garbage collector. It is a thing, which checks for pieces of memory which are not used anymore and frees it. It might be very convenient, but you don't even know when this "servant" decides to clean up your room. In games it is really important, especially in games with a lot of objects and instances. If garbage collector will decide to run and check for all allocated memory when the game is running, it will certainly reduces the efficiency of the processor. Memory management is probably one the most important things in C++.

Other than that, it has been living since a while, so a lot of libraries are already implemented for it, which can come handy to many engineers. Also, C++ is not isolated or strict language. You can use different styles of programming and easily embed other languages.

Even though it is really convenient and fast, it is criticized a lot. If you have used C++, you may probably guess why. Imagine having a vehicle. One tool (other programming languages) gives you opportunity to ride it. Another one (e.g. C++) gives you opportunity to ride it and also to smash it into parts and make it much faster vehicle. If you don't know how to do it, the chances are high that you end up with broken vehicle.

If you are still reading this post, you should be really bored to read the whole boring and long post.

Anyways, thank you for reading!