Contributing editor Al Stevens last interviewed C++ language designer Bjarne Stroustrup in 1989. In this issue, Al and Bjarne pick up where they left off.
Although the ANSI C++ technical committee has been working on a formal standard for C++ for almost three years, it has yet to release a draft standard to the public. Dan explains how the C++ language definition has changed as it evolves into a standard and looks at the prospects for a standard C++ library.
Tim's approach to writing a C++ beautifier is based on the UNIX "filter" model. This entailed his using a preprocessor to disguise C++ as C, standard C tools to effect beautification, then a post-processor to convert the disguised C++ back to its original form.
Templates open up a whole new world for C++ programmers by allowing compact and efficient implementation of container classes and other parameterized types. They also allow general, efficient implementation of algorithms with a minimum of code duplication.
Harris makes the argument that the modular nature of C++ makes it both a weak object language and a strong general-purpose language. He adds that C++ is an object-oriented language a C programmer can appreciate because it is oriented first toward execution performance, then toward flexibility.
C++ has tremendous potential in numerics, something that has gone largely unnoticed because other OOP languages lack the efficiency required to do numerics. Consequently, C++ may be the first serious challenger to Fortran in the world of numerical programming.
Multiple inheritance, which permits a class to be derived from two or more base classes, is one of the most complex and misunderstood C++ features. Tom untangles the multiple-inheritance web and describes where it can be used most effectively.
Steve and Tom implement a wide variety of free-form curves using C++ class hierarchies. Among the curves presented are Hermite curves, Bezier curves, B-spline (NUB) curves, Catmull-Rom, and NURBs.
Copyright © 1992, Dr. Dobb's Journal