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[online C++ tutorial]Section 0: Preface

Section 0.3: How to Use This Tutorial

This tutorial is broken up into Parts, Sections, and subsections. Each section starts with a subsection that introduces the concepts and topics covered in that section. This is the "What Is..." section and is always covered as subsection 1. If the user understands the terminology and basic concepts of a section, they can skip to subsection 2.

At the top of each page there are a few graphics. These graphics allow quick movement through the tutorial. At any time the user can jump to the table of contents, the search page, the glossary, or the feedback page simply by clicking on the desired word in the graphic. There are also arrows on either side of this graphic. The double arrows to the left will jump one section back, the single arrow left will jump one subsection back. The double arrows right jump ahead one section, and the single arrow right jumps ahead one subsection.

There are a few conventions followed by this tutorial. When presenting actual C++ code or pseudocode it will look like this:

this is actual code
When presenting pseudocode, keywords will be set in bold, and pieces that are generic ideas, like a boolean condition, or an integer value, will be set in italics, as follows:
if( condition) then
    do_something
In the preceding example, "if" and "then" are set as keywords, and "condition" is a generic idea: "condition" will be replaced by a programmer with a real condition before this becomes real C++ code.

The glossary page for this tutorial that contains definitions of important words or concepts. When these words appear in the text, they are linked to their definition, so the user can simply click on them and jump to their definiton. After viewing the definiton, the user should click on the "back" button on their web browser to return to the spot in the text where they left off.

The Parts of the tutorial outline the major breaks in the text. Part I introduces some concepts about programming languages and some background information on C++. It also outlines the writing and execution of a very simple C++ program. Part II dives into the basic syntax of the language. For first time programmers, it is very important to get a feel for how the language works, and to understand all the syntax introduced before moving on to part III. Part III introduces some of the most powerful features of the C++ programming language: objects and pointers. For programmers who have not done any object-oriented programming before, this is the time to open your mind. Object programming is a difficult concept, especially to programmers who have spent most of their lives writing procedural code.

Part IV explains more advanced features of objects, such as Inheritance and Polymorphism, along with streams, operator/function overloading, and exceptions. This part also contains a section that deals with setting up a project of multiple files, and using a makefile

When using this tutorial, complete understanding should be the goal. With a programming language like C++, it is important to throughly understand how the parts of the language work before trying to use them. A good understanding of the language now, will save a programmer many hours of stressful bug-hunting.

Please feel free to comment on any or all of this tutorial. The authors welcome any type of feedback. To do so, go to our feedback page at any time.


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