C++ Annotations
July 30, 2010 Friday

C++ Annotations Version 4.3.1a

This document is intended for knowledgeable users of C who would like to make the transition to C++. It is a guide for Frank's C/C++ programming courses, which are given yearly at the University of Groningen. As such, this document is not a complete C/C++ handbook. Rather, it serves as an addition to other documentation sources. If you want a hard-copy version of the C/C++ annotations: that's available in postscript, and other formats in our ftp-site.

Chapter 1: Overview of the Chapters
Chapter 2: Introduction
2.0.1: History of the C++ Annotations
2.1: What's new in the C++ Annotations
2.2: The history of C++
2.2.1: Compiling a C program by a C++ compiler
2.3: Advantages and pretensions of C++
2.4: What is Object-Oriented Programming?
2.5: Differences between C and C++
2.5.1: End-of-line comment
2.5.2: NULL-pointers vs. 0-pointers
2.5.3: Strict type checking
2.5.4: The void argument list
2.5.5: The #define __ch
2.5.6: The usage of standard C functions
2.5.7: Header files for both C and C++
2.5.8: The definition of local variables
2.5.9: Function Overloading
2.5.10: Default function arguments
2.5.11: The keyword typedef
2.5.12: Functions as part of a struct

Chapter 3: A first impression of C++
3.1: More extensions of C in C++
3.1.1: The scope operator ::
3.1.2: cout, cin and cerr
3.1.3: The `bool' data type
3.1.4: The `wchar_t' data type
3.1.5: The keyword const
3.1.6: References
3.2: Functions as part of structs
3.3: Data hiding: public, private and class
3.4: Structs in C vs. structs in C++

Chapter 4: Classes
4.1: Constructors and destructors
4.1.1: The constructor
4.1.2: The destructor
4.1.3: A first application
4.1.4: Constructors with arguments
4.1.4.1: The order of construction
4.2: Const member functions and const objects
4.3: The operators new and delete
4.3.1: Allocating and deallocating arrays
4.3.2: New and delete and object pointers
4.3.3: The function set_new_handler()
4.4: The keyword inline
4.4.1: Inline functions within class declarations
4.4.2: Inline functions outside of class declarations
4.4.3: When to use inline functions
4.5: Objects in objects: composition
4.5.1: Composition and const objects: const member initializers
4.5.2: Composition and reference objects: reference member initializers
4.6: Friend functions and friend classes
4.7: Header file organization with classes

Chapter 5: Classes and memory allocation
5.1: Classes with pointer data members
5.2: The assignment operator
5.2.1: Overloading the assignment operator
5.2.1.1: The function 'operator=()'
5.3: The this pointer
5.3.1: Preventing self-destruction with this
5.3.2: Associativity of operators and this
5.4: The copy constructor: Initialization vs. Assignment
5.4.1: Similarities between the copy constructor and operator=()
5.5: Conclusion

Chapter 6: More About Operator Overloading
6.1: Overloading operator[]()
6.2: Overloading operator new(size_t)
6.3: Overloading operator delete(void *)
6.4: Cin, cout, cerr and their operators
6.5: Conversion operators
6.6: Overloadable Operators

Chapter 7: Static data and functions
7.1: Static data
7.1.1: Private static data
7.1.2: Public static data
7.2: Static member functions

Chapter 8: Classes having pointers to members
8.1: Pointers to members: an example
8.2: Initializing pointers to members
8.3: Pointers to static members
8.4: Using pointers to members for real
8.4.1: Pointers to members: an implementation

Chapter 9: The IO-stream Library
9.1: Iostreams: insertion (<<) and extraction (>>)
9.1.1: The insertion operator <<
9.1.2: The extraction operator >>
9.2: Four standard iostreams
9.3: Files in general
9.3.1: Writing streams
9.3.2: Reading streams
9.3.3: Reading and writing streams
9.3.4: IOStream Condition States
9.3.5: Special functions
9.3.6: Formatting
9.3.6.1: The (v)form() and (v)scan() members
9.3.6.2: Format states: dec, hex, oct manipulators
9.3.6.3: Setting the precision: the member precision()
9.3.6.4: Setting the display form: the member setf()
9.3.6.5: The manipulator setw()
9.3.6.6: String Formatting

Chapter 10: More about friends
10.1: Inserting String objects into streams
10.2: An initial solution
10.3: Friend-functions
10.3.1: Preventing the friend-keyword
10.4: Friend classes

Chapter 11: Inheritance
11.1: Related types
11.2: The constructor of a derived class
11.3: The destructor of a derived class
11.4: Redefining member functions
11.5: Multiple inheritance
11.6: Conversions between base classes and derived classes
11.6.1: Conversions in object assignments
11.6.2: Conversions in pointer assignments
11.7: Storing base class pointers

Chapter 12: Polymorphism, late binding and virtual functions
12.1: Virtual functions
12.1.1: Polymorphism in program development
12.1.2: How polymorphism is implemented
12.2: Pure virtual functions
12.3: Comparing only Persons
12.4: Virtual destructors
12.5: Virtual functions in multiple inheritance
12.5.1: Ambiguity in multiple inheritance
12.5.2: Virtual base classes
12.5.3: When virtual derivation is not appropriate

Chapter 13: Exceptions
13.1: Using exceptions: an outline
13.1.1: Compiling sources in which exceptions are used
13.2: An example using exceptions
13.2.1: No exceptions: the setjmp() and longjmp() approach
13.2.2: Exceptions: the preferred alternative
13.3: Throwing exceptions
13.3.1: The empty throw statement
13.4: The try block
13.5: Catching exceptions
13.5.1: The default catcher
13.6: Declaring exception throwers

Chapter 14: Templates
14.1: Template functions
14.2: Template classes
14.2.1: A template class: Array
14.2.2: Using the Array class
14.3: Templates and Exceptions
14.4: Evaluation of template classes

Chapter 15: Concrete examples of C++
15.1: Storing objects: Storable and Storage
15.1.1: The global setup
15.1.1.1: Interface functions of the class Storage
15.1.1.2: To copy or not to copy?
15.1.1.3: Who makes the copy?
15.1.2: The class Storable
15.1.2.1: Converting an existing class to a Storable
15.1.3: The class Storage
15.2: A binary tree
15.2.1: The Node class
15.2.2: The Tree class
15.2.2.1: The `standard' functions
15.2.2.2: Adding an object to the tree
15.2.2.3: Scanning the tree
15.2.2.4: The primitive operations copy() and destroy()
15.2.3: Using Tree and Node
15.3: Classes to process program options
15.3.1: Functionality of the class Configuration
15.3.1.1: The interface of the class Configuration
15.3.1.2: An example of a program using the class Configuration
15.3.2: Implementation of the class Configuration
15.3.2.1: The constructor
15.3.2.2: loadResourceFile()
15.3.2.3: loadCommandLineOptions()
15.3.3: The class Option
15.3.3.1: The interface of the class Option
15.3.3.2: The static member nextOptionDefinition
15.3.4: Derived from Option: The class TextOption
15.3.4.1: The interface of the class TextOption
15.3.4.2: The implementation of the assign() function
15.3.5: The class Object
15.3.6: The class Hashtable
15.3.6.1: The Hashtable constructor
15.3.6.2: The function mayInsert()
15.3.6.3: The function expanded()
15.3.7: Auxiliary classes
15.3.7.1: The class Mem
15.3.7.2: The class String
15.3.7.3: The class StringTokenizer
15.3.7.4: The class Ustream
15.3.7.5: The class Util
15.4: Using Bison and Flex

15.4.1: Using Flex++ to create a scanner
15.4.1.1: The flex++ specification file
15.4.1.2: The derived class: Scanner
15.4.1.3: The main() function
15.4.1.4: Building the scanner-program
15.4.2: Using both bison++ and flex++
15.4.2.1: The bison++ specification file
15.4.2.2: The bison++ token section
15.4.2.3: The bison++ grammar rules
15.4.2.4: The flex++ specification file
15.4.2.5: The generation of the code