1 Hello again, C++!
This chapter covers
- Why C++ is relevant
- When C++ is useful
- What you need to know to read this book
- How this book will bootstrap your knowledge of C++
- What you’ll learn in this book
C++ is an old but evolving language. You can use it for almost anything and will find it in many places. In fact, C++'s inventor Bjarne Stroustrup described it as the invisible foundation of everything. Sometimes it might be deep inside a library for another language, because C++ can to be used for performance critical paths. It can run in small, embedded systems or it can power video games. Your browser might be using the language. C++ is almost everywhere.
The language is compiled, targeted at a specific architecture such as a PC, a mainframe, an embedded device, bespoke hardware or anything else you can think of. If you need your code to run on various different types of machines, you need to recompile it. This has pros and cons. Different configurations give you more to maintain, but compiling to a specific architecture gets you “down to the metal”, allowing the speed advantage. Whatever platform you target, you will need a compiler. You also need an editor or integrated development environment (IDE) to write code in C++.