Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 14
Let C++ Simplify
Your Life
Our life is frittered away by detail ... Simplify, simplify.
—H. D. Thoreau, Walden
T HE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE C++, UNDER development since 1979 by Bjarne
Stroustrup 1 at Bell Laboratories, is an extension of C that promises to dominate
the field of software development. C++ supports the principles of object-oriented
programming, which is based on the tenet that programs, or, better, processes,
comprise a set of objects that interact exclusively through their interfaces. That
is, they exchange information or accept certain external commands and process
them as a task. In this the methods by which an object carries out a task are
an internal affair “decided upon” autonomously by the object alone. The data
structures and functions that represent the internal state of an object and effect
transitions between states are the private affair of the object and should not
be detectable from the outside. This principle, known as information hiding ,
assists software developers in concentrating on the tasks that an object has
to fulfill within the framework of a program without having to worry about
implementation details. (Another way of saying this is that the focus is on “what,”
not on “how.”)
The structural designs for what goes on in the “internal affairs” of objects,
containing complete information on the organization of data structures and
functions, are the classes . With these the external interface of an object is
established, and this is decisive for the suite of behaviors that an object can
perform. Since all objects of a class reflect the same structural design, they also
1
The following, from Bjarne Stroustrup's Internet home page ( http://www.research.
att.com/ ˜ bs/ ), may help to answer the question, How do you pronounce “Bjarne Strous-
trup”?: “It can be difficult for non-Scandinavians. The best suggestion I have heard yet was
'start by saying it a few times in Norwegian, then stuff a potato down your throat and do it
again' :-). Both of my names are pronounced with two syllables: Bjar-ne Strou-strup. Neither
the B nor the J in my first name are stressed and the NE is rather weak so maybe Be-ar-neh
or By-ar-ne would give an idea. The first U in my second name really should have been a V
making the first syllable end far down the throat: Strov-strup. The second U is a bit like the OO
in OOP, but still short; maybe Strov-stroop will give an idea.”
 
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