A Tour of C++ (C++ In-Depth Series)

The C++11 standard allows programmers to express ideas more clearly, simply, and directly, and to write faster, more efficient code. Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer and original implementer of C++, thoroughly covers the details of this language and its use in his definitive reference, The C++ Programming Language, Fourth Edition.

In A Tour of C++ , Stroustrup excerpts the overview chapters from that complete reference, expanding and enhancing them to give an experienced programmer–in just a few hours–a clear idea of what constitutes modern C++. In this concise, self-contained guide, Stroustrup covers most major language features and the major standard-library components–not, of course, in great depth, but to a level that gives programmers a meaningful overview of the language, some key examples, and practical help in getting started.

Stroustrup presents the C++ features in the context of the programming styles they support, such as object-oriented and generic programming. His tour is remarkably comprehensive. Coverage begins with the basics, then ranges widely through more advanced topics, including many that are new in C++11, such as move semantics, uniform initialization, lambda expressions, improved containers, random numbers, and concurrency. The tour ends with a discussion of the design and evolution of C++ and the extensions added for C++11.

This guide does not aim to teach you how to program (see Stroustrup’s Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ for that); nor will it be the only resource you’ll need for C++ mastery (see Stroustrup’s The C++ Programming Language, Fourth Edition, for that). If, however, you are a C or C++ programmer wanting greater familiarity with the current C++ language, or a programmer versed in another language wishing to gain an accurate picture of the nature and benefits of modern C++, you can’t find a shorter or simpler introduction than this tour provides.

Bjarne Stroustrup is the designer and original implementer of C++ and the author of Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++, 2nd Edition and The C++ Programming Language, among others. Having previously worked at Bell Labs, AT&T Labs - Research, and Texas A&M University, he is currently Managing Director in the technology division of Morgan Stanley in New York City. The recipient of numerous honors, including The National Academy of Engineering 2018 Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering “for conceptualizing and developing the C++ programming language, Dr. Stroustrup is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an AT&T Fellow, an AT&T Bell Laboratories Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, and an ACM Fellow. He was voted into Electronic Design's Engineering Hall of Fame in 2013. His research interests include distributed systems, simulation, design, programming techniques, software development tools, and programming languages, and he remains actively involved in the ANSI/ISO standardization of C++. Dr. Stroustrup holds an advanced degree from the University of Aarhus in his native Denmark and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cambridge University, England.