a brief look at c++. 7z

ABSTRACT ++ ++ This note describes some key aspects of what C is and of how C has developed ++ ++ over the years. The perspective is that of an experienced C user looking at C as a ++ practical tool. No attempts are made to compare C to other languages, though I have tried to answer some questions that I have often heard asked by Lisp programmers. 1 Introduction ++ ++ Like all living languages, C has grown and changed over the years. For me, the improvements to C ++ have seemed almost glacially slow and inevitable; they are natural developments of C !ˉs own interna logic and deliberate responses to the experiences of hundred of thousands of users. To many who wanted ++ ++ to use C aggressively, this growth has been frustratingly slow and timid. To some who considered C only infrequently, the developments have seem like unpredictable lurches into the unknown. To others, ++ C has simply been something peripheral about which little concrete was known, but about which a multi- tude of strange rumors persisted. ++ However you look at it, C has developed significantly since its first appearance. As an example, con- sider a simple function that sorts a container and then counts the number of entries between Dahl and Nygaard: template<class C> int cnt(C& v) { sort(c.begin(),v.end()); C::iterator d = find(v.begin(), v.end(), "Dahl"); return count(d, find(d, v.end(), "Nygaard")); }