C++ Tutorial - Lesson One Learning How to Compile With Visual C++ 2005

C++ has been described as the Swiss knife of development. It is used to write operating systems, compilers, business programs, games, browsers etc. With Java and more recently C#, C++ is probably now not the language of first choice for new projects. There is however a massive code base of C++ applications in existence that is not going to go away anytime soon and C++ development will be around for the next couple of decades at least.

What Does C++ Not Do Well?

GUI applications have been possible using MFC on Win 32 but it has something of a learning curve. Visual Basic and latterly C# have been more successful as both languages simplify GUI development considerably. Now though, Microsoft is moving lock, stock and barrel onto the .NET framework but has realized that it cannot walk away from C++, much as I suspect it would like to. The advantages of not having software built with pointers and built in garbage collection have been learnt from observing Java. The first attempt to mix C++ safely with .NET with managed extensions didn't entirely set the world on fire and now Microsoft is back with C++/CLI.

But enough of the talk, on with the tutorial.

On the next page Laern about Numbers in C++