Thinking In C++. Volume 2: Practical Programming

 4. Iostreams. One of the original C++ libraries—the one that provides the essential I/O facility—is called iostreams. Iostreams is intended to replace C’s stdio.h with an I/O library that is easier to use, more flexible, and extensible—you can adapt it to work with your new classes. This chapter teaches you the ins and outs of how to make the best use of the existing iostream library for standard I/O, file I/O, and in-memory formatting^.

5. Templates in Depth. The distinguishing feature of «modern C++» is the broad power of templates. Templates are for more than just generic containers; they support development of robust, generic, high-performance libraries. There is a lot to know about templates—they constitute, as it were, a sub-language within the C++ language, and give the programmer an impressive degree of control over the compilation process. It is not an understatement to say that templates have revolutionized C++ programming.

6. Generic Algorithms. Algorithms are at the core of computing, and C++, through its template facility, supports an impressive entourage of powerful, efficient, and easy-to-use generic algorithms. The standard algorithms are also customizable through function objects. This chapter looks at every algorithm in the library. (Chapters 6 and 7 cover that portion of the standard C++ library commonly-known as the Standard Template Library, or STL.)

7. Generic Containers & Iterators. C++ supports all the common data structures known to man in a type-safe manner. You never have to worry about what such a container holds; the homogeneity of its objects is guaranteed. Separating the traversing of a container from the container itself, another accomplishment of templates, is made possible through iterators. This ingenious arrangement allows a flexible application of algorithms to containers by means of the simplest of designs.

Part 3: Special Topics

8. Run-time type identification. Run-time type identification (RTTI) lets you find the exact type of an object when you only have a pointer or reference to the base type. Normally, you’ll want to intentionally ignore the exact type of an object and let the virtual function mechanism implement the correct behavior for that type. But occasionally (like when writing software tools such as debuggers) it is helpful to know the exact type of an object for which you only have a base pointer; often this information allows you to perform a special-case operation more efficiently. This chapter explains what RTTI is for and how to use it^.

9. Multiple inheritance. This sounds simple at first: A new class is inherited from more than one existing class. However, you can end up with ambiguities and multiple copies of base-class objects. That problem is solved with virtual base classes, but the bigger issue remains: When do you use it? Multiple inheritance is only essential when you need to manipulate an object through more than one common base class. This chapter explains the syntax for multiple inheritance, and shows alternative approaches—in particular, how templates solve one common problem. The use of multiple inheritance to repair a «damaged» class interface is demonstrated as a genuinely valuable use of this feature^.

10. Design Patterns. The most revolutionary advance in programming since objects is the introduction of design patterns. A design pattern is a language-independent codification of a solution to a common programming problem, expressed in such a way that it can apply to many contexts. Patterns such as Singleton, Factory Method, and Visitor now find their way into daily discussions around the keyboard. This chapter shows how to implement and use some of the more useful design patterns in C++.

11. Concurrent Programming. Users have long been used to responsive user interfaces that (seem to) process multiple tasks simultaneously. Modern operating systems allow processes to have multiple threads that share the process address space. Multi-threaded programming requires a different mindset, however, and comes with its own set of «gotchas.» This chapter uses a freely available library (the ZThread library by Eric Crahen of IBM) to show how to effectively manage multi-threaded applications in C++.

Exercises

We have discovered that simple exercises are exceptionally useful during a seminar to complete a student’s understanding, so you’ll find a set at the end of each chapter^.