1. Jim Fawcett CSE687 – Object Oriented Design Spring 2003
Assessment – C++
Jim Fawcett
CSE687 – Object Oriented Design
Spring 2003

2. C++ - Strengths Is very powerful Language emphasizes performance
Can program at very low level or very high level of abstraction
Has direct access to memory
User defined objects are first class citizens
Supports structured design, object oriented design, and generic design
Has a flexible memory model – static, stack, and heap
Language emphasizes performance
You don’t pay for features you don’t use
Almost no runtime checking
Is platform agnostic
Language and standard library apply to all platfroms
Easy to isolate platform dependencies in small modules.
Has a governing standard

3. C++ Strengths C++ is widely used
There are a lot of resources available:
Stroustrup’s Site
Herb Sutter's Site
CodeProject
Chris Sell's Site
Boost C++ Library
C++ at Microsoft

4. C++ - Weaknesses C++ is a complex language Safety is not automatic
Context dependent
Has a lot of rules that are not enforced by the compiler
Use virtual destructors
Use initializers in constructors
Don’t return references to temporaries
Most rules have exceptions
Compiler will generate void ctor, but only if no other ctor defined
Compiler will always generate copy ctor
Safety is not automatic
No bounds checking
Direct access to memory
Can break the type system with casts
Thrown exceptions can leave program in undefined state.

5. C++ - Weaknesses Things not supported by the language
Threads and synchronization
Directory services
Graphical User Interfaces
Network programming
Internet programming
Database operations

6. C# - Strengths

7. Ok, That’s a joke! I like C# too.

8. Resources To Help You Class Texts
Reference in SciTech Library – Carnagie Hall, south east corner
Friday morning help sessions:
9:00 – 12:00 in CST 2-120
Teaching Assistants:
Office Hours
Help Sessions
One or two session covering Visual Studio IDE
MadLab, 010 Link, scheduled as needed

9. End of Assessment