The creation of C is considered by many to have marked the beginning of the modern
age of computer languages. It successfully synthesized the conflicting attributes that had
so troubled earlier languages. The result was a powerful, efficient, structured language that
was relatively easy to learn. It also included one other, nearly intangible aspect: it was a
programmer's language. Prior to the invention of C, computer languages were generally
designed either as academic exercises or by bureaucratic committees. C is different. It was
designed, implemented, and developed by real, working programmers, reflecting the way
that they approached the job of programming. Its features were honed, tested, thought
about, and rethought by the people who actually used the language. The result was a
language that programmers liked to use. Indeed, C quickly attracted many followers
who had a near-religious zeal for it. As such, it found wide and rapid acceptance in the
programmer community. In short, C is a language designed by and for programmers.
As you will see, Java inherited this legacy.
C++: The Next Step
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, C became the dominant computer programming
language, and it is still widely used today. Since C is a successful and useful language, you
might ask why a need for something else existed. The answer is complexity. Throughout the
history of programming, the increasing complexity of programs has driven the need for better
ways to manage that complexity. C++ is a response to that need. To better understand why
managing program complexity is fundamental to the creation of C++, consider the following.
Approaches to programming have changed dramatically since the invention of the
computer. For example, when computers were first invented, programming was done by
manually toggling in the binary machine instructions by use of the front panel. As long as
programs were just a few hundred instructions long, this approach worked. As programs grew,
assembly language was invented so that a programmer could deal with larger, increasingly
complex programs by using symbolic representations of the machine instructions. As programs
continued to grow, high-level languages were introduced that gave the programmer more tools
with which to handle complexity.
The first widespread language was, of course, FORTRAN. While FORTRAN was an
impressive first step, it is hardly a language that encourages clear and easy-to-understand
programs. The 1960s gave birth to structured programming. This is the method of programming
championed by languages such as C. The use of structured languages enabled programmers
to write, for the first time, moderately complex programs fairly easily. However, even with
structured programming methods, once a project reaches a certain size, its complexity exceeds what
a programmer can manage. By the early 1980s, many projects were pushing the structured
approach past its limits. To solve this problem, a new way to program was invented, called
object-oriented programming (OOP). Object-oriented programming is discussed in detail later in this
topic, but here is a brief definition: OOP is a programming methodology that helps organize
complex programs through the use of inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism.
In the final analysis, although C is one of the world's great programming languages,
there is a limit to its ability to handle complexity. Once the size of a program exceeds a
certain point, it becomes so complex that it is difficult to grasp as a totality. While the
precise size at which this occurs differs, depending upon both the nature of the program
and the programmer, there is always a threshold at which a program becomes
unmanageable. C++ added features that enabled this threshold to be broken, allowing
programmers to comprehend and manage larger programs.
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