Beginner's Guide To C++
Beginner's Guide

Jump right in! (for people in a hurry)

Introduction
Intro

What Is This Guide?
About

  • an organized collection of links to topic articles
  • about learning modern, idiomatic C++
  • (roughly) ordered by increasing level of C++ proficiency (top to bottom)
  • as of now most articles mainly consist of slide decks taken from an undergraduate C++ crash course

What Should I Already Know?
Prev. Knowledge

You should know how to use a command line and should have a basic understanding of fundamental imperative programming concepts, like

  • variables   (int i = 0, var x = 0, … )
  • conditional branching   (if, then, else, … )
  • loops   (for, while, repeat, … )
  • functions / subroutines   (int main(), fn main, … )

It certainly helps if you are already somewhat familiar with other programming languages like Python or Java. You should be aware however, that C++ is very different from Java or C# despite the superficial syntactic similarities.

What is C++? — Why C++?
What is C++?
C++?

Predictable Resource Control
"direct map to hardware": CPU, memory, …
Zero-Overhead Abstractions
"you only pay for what you use"
  • deterministic object lifetime
  • value semantics for all types
  • custom types can behave exactly like built-in types
  • full control down to individual bits
ISO Standard C++
C++98 1998 the original standard
C++11 2011 almost a new language modern C++
C++14 2014 some improvements
C++17 2017 new features & library extensions
C++20 2020 game-changing new features & libraries
Where it does and doesn't shine
  • if memory consumption is critical
  • if runtime is critical
  • if latency is critical
  • if power consumption is critical
  • OS level programming
  • embedded systems
  • large-scale, massively parallel systems
  • source-code portability across architectures
  • "scripting" & rapid prototyping
See Also

C++ Compared to…
C++ vs.

C
C++ C
not a strict subset of C++
stronger type system weak type system
high-level abstractions only low-level memory abstraction
powerful custom types (classes) only data aggregation (struct)
use compiler as correctness checker get the code to compile quickly
if it compiles, it should be correct debugging is the real work
Java
C++ Java
value semantics for all types value semantics only for primitives (int, float,… )
optional reference semantics for all types baked-in reference semantics for class types
full control over memory (de-)allocation; no garbage collection garbage collector; can degrade performance
deterministic & controllable object lifetime no predictable object lifetime control
⇒ memory frugal ⇒ high memory consumption
aggressive inlining can eliminate slow function calls performance degradation due to un-devirtualizable, non-inlinable methods
Python
C++ Python
almost always faster almost always slower (in practice around 25-50 times)
complex syntax and tons of features can be intimidating to newcomers simple syntax; usually easy to comprehend
statically typed dynamically typed
many types of bugs can be caught at compile time many types of bugs will only manifest at runtime
suited for safety-critical lange-scale systems hard to build reliable large-scale systems
even simple, small-scope tasks can quickly require an expert knowledge of various arcane corner-cases & quirks tends to be more beginner-friendly and small scripts are usually quickly written
fairly small standard library but extensive ecosystem with libraries for nearly everything batteries included philosophy with tons of libraries only one import away

Learning Resources
Resources

First Steps

Input & Output

Basic Custom Types

Stack & Control Flow

Diagnostics

Terms
warnings are compiler messages hinting at potentially problematic runtime behavior / subtle pitfalls
static analysis finds potential runtime problems like undefined behavior by analyzing the source code
dynamic analysis finds potential problems like memory leaks by running the actual program
profiling is used to find out how much each function/loop/code block contributes to the total running time, memory consumption, …
debugging is used to step through code at runtime and inspect in-memory values
testing compare actual and expected behavior of parts or entire program
code coverage tells what parts of the code are actually executed / subjected to testing

Standard Library Overview
Standard Library
Std.Library

Introduction To Containers
Intro
Selected Standard Algorithms
Algorithms
Functional Style Programming
Functional Style
Containers Overview
Containers
Random Numbers
Randomness

Code Organization

Poweful Custom Types

Generic Programming

Memory Management

Software Design Basics