What is C++?

Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++ at Bell Labs in the early 1980s to merge the best advantages of several other languages. He wanted to put together the quickness of BCPL, the high-level of Simula, and the universality of Dennis Ritchie’s C. He took inspiration from other languages as well, such as Ada, ML, and ALGOL 68, to create a well-structured, general-purpose language that could compile nearly all C programs without changing their source code. C++ is so flexible that is often nicknamed the "Swiss Pocket Knife of Programming Languages" (although this nickname is shared by Python as well).

C++ and Object-Oriented Programming

When C++ was new, object-oriented programming was just coming on the scene. This revolutionary type of computer programming transformed the coding world with its promise of more sophisticated virtual data types and objects.

In object-oriented programming, an object is a data type that has both data and functions inherent in its design. Prior to the advent of object-oriented programming, programmers typically saw a codebase as composed of individual command line instructions. The identification of objects with data and functions built in led to a new way of packaging and automating code work.