Participants need not have any prior C++ experience, but should be experienced with C. (A reading knowledge is rarely sufficient.) In particular, qualified participants should be able to:

• read and write data declarations and function prototype declarations
• understand the interchangeability of pointer and subscripting notation
• work with structs and pointers to structs
• build programs from more than one source (.c) file

If you are uncertain about whether you should take this course, we suggest you contact us.

1. Introduction

• Fundamental Design Concepts
• Abstract Data Types
• The "Spirit" of C++

• Compiling and Running C++ programs
• "Programming in the Large"
• Case study: Critiquing a "Large" C program
• Encapsulation using Separate Compilation

• Member Functions
• Declaring and Using Objects
• Partitioning Design Decisions
• C++ Notation and Terminology
• Access Control

• Static, Automatic and Dynamic Memory
• new and delete operators
• Case study: Dynamic Arrays
• Constructors and Destructors
• Member Initializers
• Static Data and Function Members

• Inline Functions
• Function Name Overloading
• const and volatile Qualifiers
• const Member Functions
• References as Arguments and Return Types
• Copy Constructors

• Operator Overloading
• Case Study: Rational Numbers
• Default Assignment Operator
• Default Function Arguments
• Friend Functions
• Stream Input and Output
• Conversion Operators

• Reusing Classes via Membership (Aggregation or Composition)
• Reusing Classes via Inheritance (Derivation)
• Inheritance vs. Aggregation (Is-A vs. Has-A Relationships)

• Scope Rules
• Nested Classes
• Friend Classes
• More on Access Control

• Static vs. Dynamic Binding
• Polymorphism
• Case Study: a Unix-like File System
• Type Fields and Discriminated Unions
• Common Interfaces Using Inheritance
• Virtual Functions
• Abstract Base Classes and Pure Virtual Functions
• Pointer and Reference Conversions
• Case Study: a Hierarchy of Geometric Shapes