One problem with procedural languages
was that programmers found themselves constantly reinventing new solutions
to old problems. In other words, "reinventing the wheel".
If a programmer wanted to include say - a spreadsheet - in a program,
then the code would be written from scratch, even though similar code
would probably have been written many times by different programmers.
In the 1980's. new ideas of reusability
became important and programming languages started to develop object
orientated capabilities. The idea behind reusability is to build components
and then to be able to plug them into your program as you need them.
For example, if you want to insert a command button into your program
you certainly don't want to have to draw it pixel by pixel in your program.
Far better to use a program component for a command button that someone
has already written.
If you think about it, reusability
is more like real life. For example, have you ever considered building
your own computer? It is quite simple to do using separately made components.
You certainly don't have to make your own silicon chip processor from
scratch. Object-oriented programming attempts to achieve this type of
reuse of software components
This is where C++ come into play.
In 1985, Bjarne Stroustrup created C++ based on the C programming language.
C++ is an extension of C that adds object-oriented programming
capabilities.
You could say that C++ is currently
the most popular programming language, particularly for developing graphical
programs that run on platforms such as Macintosh and Windows. Visual
C++ is a visual development environment for creating C and
C++ applications. You can create both C and C++ applications in Visual
C++. The C and C++ language syntax used in Visual C++ conforms to ANSI
C/C++ specifications.
Note: Visual
C++ itself is not a programming language. It is a development environment
used for creating programs with the C/C++ languages.
