C++

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C++ (pronounced "see plus plus", IPA: /ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs/) is a general-purpose programming language with high-level and low-level capabilities. It is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, usually compiled language supporting procedural programming, data abstraction, object-oriented programming, and generic programming.

C++ is regarded as a mid-level language. This indicates that C++ comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features.^[1]

Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++ in 1979 at Bell Labs as an enhancement to the C programming language and named it "C with Classes". In 1983 it was renamed to C++. Enhancements started with the addition of classes, followed by, among other features, virtual functions, operator overloading, multiple inheritance, templates, and exception handling. The C++ programming language standard was ratified in 1998 as ISO/IEC 14882:1998, the current version of which is the 2003 version, ISO/IEC 14882:2003. A new version of the standard (known informally as C++0x) is being developed.

C/C++ compilers

Compiler	Author	Windows	UNIX-like	Other OSs	License type	IDE?
C++ Builder	CodeGear (Borland)	Yes	No	DOS	Proprietary	Yes
C++ Compiler[1]	CodeGear (Borland)	Yes	No	No	Freeware	No
Comeau C/C++	Comeau Computing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	?
CoSy compiler development system	ACE Associated Compiler Experts	Yes	Yes	No	Commercial	No
Digital Mars	Digital Mars	Yes	No	DOS	Proprietary	Yes
GCC	GNU	Yes	Yes	Yes	Open source	No
Intel C++ Compiler	Intel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	Yes
Local C compiler	Chris Fraser and David Hanson	Yes	Yes	Yes	Open source	Windows
MULTI	Green Hills Software	Yes	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	Yes
Open Watcom	Sybase	Yes	No	Yes	Open source	Yes
PathScale	QLogic	No	Yes	No	Proprietary/Open Source	No
PGI Workstation	PGI	Yes	Yes	No	Proprietary	Yes
Portable C Compiler	Anders Magnusson and others	No	Yes	No	BSD style/Open Source	No
ProDev WorkShop	Silicon Graphics	No	No	Yes	Proprietary	Yes
SAS/C	SAS Institute	?	?	IBM mainframe	Proprietary	?
Sun Studio	Sun Microsystems	No	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	Yes
TenDRA	TenDRA Project	No	Yes	No	Open source	No
Tiny C Compiler	Fabrice Bellard	Yes	Yes	No	Open source	No
Visual Studio	Microsoft	Yes	No	No	Proprietary	Yes
VisualAge	IBM	No	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	Yes
XL C/C++	IBM	No	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	No
AMPC	Axiomatic Solutions Sdn Bhd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Proprietary	Yes
Nwcc	Nils Weller	Yes	Yes	Yes	Open source	No

1. ^ Part of C++ Builder, available for separate download here: [1]

[edit] Open source compilers

• Amsterdam Compiler Kit (ACK) [C, Pascal, Modula-2, Occam, and BASIC] [UNIX-like]
• FreeBASIC [Basic] [DOS/Linux/Windows]
• Free Pascal [Pascal] [DOS/Linux/Windows]
• Lazarus [Pascal, Object Pascal] [DOS/Linux/Windows]
• Roadsend PHP [PHP 4] [Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X]
• GCC [C, C++ (G++), Java (GCJ), Ada (GNAT), Objective-C, Objective-C++, and Fortran (GFortran). Also available, but not in standard are: Modula-2, Modula-3, Pascal, PL/I, D, Mercury, VHDL] [Linux, the BSDs, Mac OS X, NeXTSTEP, Microsoft Windows and BeOS, among others]
• Local C compiler [C] [Linux, SPARC, MIPS]
• Portable C Compiler [C] [UNIX-like]
• Open Watcom [C, C++, and Fortran] [Windows and OS/2, Linux/FreeBSD WIP]
• TenDRA [C/C++] [UNIX-like]
• Tiny C Compiler [C] [Linux, Windows]

[edit] Research compilers

Research compilers are mostly not robust or complete enough to handle real, large applications. They are used mostly for fast prototyping new language features and new optimizations in research areas.

• Open64: one of the most popular research compilers today, many branches exist. One is the Open Research Compiler (ORC) for Itanium processors. (The PathScale compiler mentioned above is based on Open64.)
• SUIF: inactive since 2001
  • MACHINE SUIF a branch focusing on machine-specific analyses and optimizations,
• ROSE compiler
• Polaris compiler for Fortran
  • Cetus for C/C++, successor of Polaris compiler
• The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure
• OpenIMPACT Compiler
• Phoenix optimization and analysis framework by Microsoft
• Very Portable Optimizer (VPO) from the University of Virginia
• Trimaran for research in instruction-level parallelism
• Parafrase-2 Inactive. It is a source-to-source vectorizing/parallelizing compiler, with Fortran and C front-ends.
  • The PARADIGM compiler. Derived from Parafrase-2, it is a source-to-source research compiler for distributed-memory multicomputers for Fortran 77 and HPF.
• MLton standard ML compiler (SML compiler)
• Jikes Rsearch Virtual machine(RVM): a research compiler for JAVA
• Soot: a Java Optimization framework
• The Scale compiler
• HotpathVM: a Java virtual machine using a trace-based just-in-time compiler