Chapters 1 & 2

Programming and Programs

Bjarne Stroustrup
www.stroustrup.com/Programming

Abstract
Today, well outline the aims for this course and
present a rough course plan. Well introduce
the basic notion of programming and give
examples of areas in which software is critical
to our civilization. Finally, well present the
simplest possible C++ program and outline
how it can be made into running code.
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Overview

Course aims and outline

Programming
"Hello, world!"
Compilation

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This is a course

In Programming
For beginners

who want to become professionals

who are assumed to be bright

Though not (necessarily) geniuses

who are willing to work hard

i.e., people who can produce systems that others will use

Though do need sleep occasionally, and take a normal course load

Using the C++ programming language

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Not!

A Washout course

A course in

If you can get into the science/engineering parts of a university, you

can handle this course
The C++ programming language

For students

who want to become language lawyers

who are assumed to be a bit dim and fairly lazy

We try not to get bogged down in technical obscurities

We try not to spoon feed

Using

Some untested software development methodologies and a lot of

unnecessarily long words

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The Aims

Teach/learn

After the course, youll be able to

Fundamental programming concepts

Key useful techniques
Basic Standard C++ facilities
Write small colloquial C++ programs
Read much larger programs
Learn the basics of many other languages by yourself
Proceed with an advanced C++ programming course

After the course, you will not (yet) be

An expert programmer
A C++ language expert
An expert user of advanced libraries
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The Means

Lectures

Attend every one

Notes/Chapters

Read a chapter ahead (about one per lecture)

Read the chapter again after each lecture
Feedback is welcome (typos, suggestions, etc.)

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The Means (Cont.)

Work

Review questions in chapters

Review Terms in Chapters
Drills
Always do the drills
Always do the drills before the exercises

Exercises
Course specific

Projects

Thats where the most fun and the best learning takes place

Quizzes
Exams

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Cooperate on Learning
Except for the work you hand in as individual contributions,
we strongly encourage you to collaborate and help each other

If in doubt if a collaboration is legitimate: ask!

Dont claim to have written code that you copied from others
Dont give anyone else your code (to hand in for a grade)
When you rely on the work of others, explicitly list all of your sources
i.e. give credit to those who did the work

Dont study alone when you dont have to

Form study groups

Do help each other (without plagiarizing)

Go to your TA's office hours

Go prepared with questions

The only stupid questions are the ones you wanted to ask but didn t

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Why C++ ?
You cant learn to program without a programming language
The purpose of a programming language is to allow you to
express your ideas in code
C++ is the language that most directly allows you to express
ideas from the largest number of application areas
C++ is the most widely used language in engineering areas

http://www.stroustrup.com/applications.html

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Why C++ ?
C++ is precisely and comprehensively defined by
an ISO standard

And that standard is almost universally accepted

The most recent standard in ISO C++ 2014

C++ is available on almost all kinds of computers

Programming concepts that you learn using C++
can be used fairly directly in other languages

Including C, Java, C#, and (less directly) Fortran

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Rough course outline

Part I: The basics

Part II: Input and Output

File I/O, I/O streams

Graphical output
Graphical User Interface

Part III: Data structures and algorithms

Types, variables, strings, console I/O, computations, errors, vectors functions,

source files, classes

Free store, pointers, and arrays

Lists, maps, sorting and searching, vectors, templates
The STL

Part IV: Broadening the view

Software ideals and history

Text processing, numerics, embedded systems programming, testing, C, etc.
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Rough course outline (Cont.)

Throughout

Program design and development techniques

C++ language features
Background and related fields, topics, and languages

Note: Appendices

C++ language summary

C++ standard library summary
Index (extensive)
Glossary (short)

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Promises

Detail: We will try to explain every construct used in this

course in sufficient detail for real understanding

Utility: We will try to explain only useful concepts, constructs,

and techniques

There is no magic

We will not try to explain every obscure detail

Completeness: The concepts, constructs, and techniques can

be used in combination to construct useful programs

There are, of course, many useful concepts, constructs, and techniques

beyond what is taught here

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More Promises

Realism: The concepts, constructs, and techniques can be used

to build industrial strength programs

Simplicity: The examples used are among the simplest realistic

ones that illustrate the concepts, constructs, and techniques

i.e., they have been used to

Your exercises and projects will provide more complex examples

Scalability: The concepts, constructs, and techniques can be

used to construct large, reliable, and efficient programs

i.e., they have been used to

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Feedback request

Please mail questions and constructive comments to

[email protected]

Your feedback will be most appreciated

On style, contents, detail, examples, clarity, conceptual problems,

exercises, missing information, depth, etc.

Book support website (www.stroustrup.com/Programming)

Local course support website

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Why programming?

Our civilization runs on software

Most engineering activities involve software

Note: most programs do not run on things that look

like a PC

a screen, a keyboard, a box under the table

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Ships

Design
Construction
Management

Monitoring
Engine
Hull design
Pumps

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Aircraft

Communication
Control
Display

Signal processing
Gadget control
Monitoring

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Phones

Voice quality
User interfaces
Billing
Mobility

Switching
Reliability
Provisioning
Images

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Energy

Control
Monitoring
Analysis
Design

Communications
Visualization
Manufacturing

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PC/tablet/workstation

Theres a lot more to computing than games, word

processing, browsing, and spreadsheets!

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Where is C++ Used?

Just about everywhere

Mars rovers, animation, graphics, Photoshop, GUI, OS, compilers, slides,

chip design, chip manufacturing, semiconductor tools, etc.
See www.stroustrup.com/applications.html
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A first program just the guts

//
int main()
{
cout << "Hello, world!\n";
return 0;

// main() is where a C++ program starts

// output the 13 characters Hello, world!
// followed by a new line
// return a value indicating success

}
// quotes delimit a string literal
// NOTE: smart quotes will cause compiler problems.
//
so make sure your quotes are of the style " "
// \n is a notation for a new line

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A first program complete

// a first program:
#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

// get the library facilities needed for now

int main()
{
cout << "Hello, world!\n";

// main() is where a C++ program starts

return 0;

// output the 13 characters Hello, world!

// followed by a new line
// return a value indicating success

}
// note the semicolons; they terminate statements
// braces { } group statements into a block
// main( ) is a function that takes no arguments ( )
//
and returns an int (integer value) to indicate success or failure
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A second program
// modified for Windows console mode:
#include "std_lib_facilities.h"

// get the facilities for this course

int main()
{
cout << "Hello, world!\n";

// main() is where a C++ program starts

keep_window_open();
return 0;

// output the 13 characters Hello, world!

// followed by a new line
// wait for a keystroke
// return a value indicating success

}
// without keep_window_open() the output window will be closed immediately
// before you have a chance to read the output (on Visual C++ 20xx)

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Hello, world!

Hello world is a very important program

Its purpose is to help you get used to your tools

Compiler
Program development environment
Program execution environment

Type in the program carefully

After you get it to work, please make a few mistakes to see how the
tools respond; for example

Forget the header

Forget to terminate the string
Misspell return (e.g., retrun)
Forget a semicolon
Forget { or }

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Hello world

Its almost all boiler plate

Thats normal

Most of our code, and most of the systems we use simply exist to make
some other code elegant and/or efficient
real world non-software analogies abound

Boiler plate, that is, notation, libraries, and other support is

what makes our code simple, comprehensible, trustworthy, and
efficient.

Only cout << "Hello, world!\n" directly does anything

Would you rather write 1,000,000 lines of machine code?

This implies that we should not just get things done; we

should take great care that things are done elegantly, correctly,
and in ways that ease the creation of more/other software:

Style Matters!
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Compilation and linking

C++ source code
C++ compiler
Object code
Executable program
linker

You write C++ source code

Object code is simple enough for a computer to understand

The linker links your code to system code needed to execute

Source code is (in principle) human readable

The compiler translates what you wrote into object code (sometimes called
machine code)

Library Object code

E.g., input/output libraries, operating system code, and windowing code

The result is an executable program

E.g., a .exe file on windows or an a.out file on Unix

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So what is programming?

Conventional definitions

Telling a very fast moron exactly what to do

A plan for solving a problem on a computer
Specifying the order of a program execution

Definition from another domain (academia)

A program is an organized and directed accumulation of resources

to accomplish specific objectives

Good, but no mention of actually doing anything

The definition well use

Specifying the structure and behavior of a program, and testing that the
program performs its task correctly and with acceptable performance

But modern programs often involve millions of lines of code

And manipulation of data is central

Never forget to check that it works

Software == one or more programs

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Programming

Programming is fundamentally simple

Just state what the machine is to do

So why is programming hard?

We want the machine to do complex things

The world is more complex than we d like to believe

So we dont always know the implications of what we want

Programming is understanding

And computers are nitpicking, unforgiving, dumb beasts

When you can program a task, you understand it

When you program, you spend significant time trying to understand the
task you want to automate

Programming is part practical, part theory

If you are just practical, you produce non-scalable unmaintainable hacks

If you are just theoretical, you produce toys
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The next lecture

Will talk about types, values, variables,

declarations, simple input and output, very
simple computations, and type safety.

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