Starting with C++
How C++ evolved from C?
The history of C++ begins with C. C++ is built upon the foundation of C. Thus,
C++ is a superset of C. C++ expanded and enhanced the C language to support objectoriented
programming. C++ also added several other improvements to the C language,
including an extended set of library routines. However, much of the spirit and flavor of
C++ is directly inherited from C. Therefore, to fully understand and appreciate C++, you
need to understand the “how and why” behind C.
C++ was invented by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979, at Bell Laboratories in Murray
Hill, New Jersey. He initially called the new language “C with Classes” However in 1983
the name was changed to C++ Stroustrup built C++ on the foundation of C including all
of C’s features attributes and benefits. Most of the features that Stroustrup added to C
were designed to support object-oriented programming. In essence, C++ is the objectoriented
version of C. By building upon the foundation of C, Stroustrup provided a
smooth migration path to OOP. Instead of having to learn an entirely new language, a C
programmer needed to learn only a few new features before reaping the benefits of the
object-oriented methodology.
