Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 22:57:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Michael Phelps <morphine AT hops DOT cs DOT jhu DOT edu>
To: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT sympatico DOT ca>
cc: Alan Wilson <alan DOT wilson AT wilshire DOT com>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Learning C/C++
In-Reply-To: <32E57E81.46BB7A32@sympatico.ca>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970121225345.14486A-100000@hops.cs.jhu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Mike A. Harris wrote:

> Alan Wilson wrote:
> > >> love to program.. and I lvoe my computer.. and I would love to be able
> > >> to program in C/C++ ASAP!    :)
> > >You'll have to learn C sufficiently before you even think of C++,
> > >however C is easy to learn if you have a couple books and some time to
> > >invest.  If you've got any programming experience in BASIC or any
> > >other languages then you'll be fairly comfortable with C within 2 - 4
> > >weeks.  If not, then it may take a while.
> > 
> > Is that true??  I would need to learn C before I can program in C++?  I was
> > under the impressions that I could skip C.
> 
> C++ is just *that*:  C "plus plus".  If it were a completely different
> language, then they would have called it D or something.  However, C++
> is basically C with a lot of extensions to the language.  Quite a number
> of differences can be found between the two languages, however C++ falls
> back on C in that any "C" program is also a valid "C++" program.  Thats

Well, this is not _entirely_ true.  (Imagine a line such as "char *new;")
But I know what you mean.

> probably why they called C++ "C++".  Perhaps a better name for it would
> have been "C, but not *just* C, oh no, it's much more, its plus plus
> much
> more".  Perhaps that is what they were thinking of calling it only they
> thought it was a little wordy so they just called it C++.

Actually, Stroustrup originally called it "C with classes".  The
final culmination was "C++".

> 
> At any rate, yes, you have to learn C to learn C++.
> 
> -- 
> Mike A. Harris  -  Computer Consultant  
> http://www3.sympatico.ca/mharris
> My dynamic address:     
> http://www3.sympatico.ca/mharris/ip-address.html
> mailto:mharris AT sympatico DOT ca       
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> 
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