C++ is a programming language. A standardized, general-purpose, object-oriented, compiled language. C++ is accompanied by a set of functions and containers called the C++ Standard-Library. Bjarne Stroustrup created C++ as an extension to a C programming language. Still, C++ evolved to be a completely different programming language.
Let us emphasize this: C and C++ are two different languages. C++ started as “C with classes,” but it is now a completely different language. So, C++ is not C; C++ is not C with classes; it is just C++. And there is no such thing as a C/C++ programming language.
C++ is widely used for the so-called systems programming as well as application programming. C++ is a language that allows us to get down to the metal where we can perform low-level routines if needed, or soar high with abstraction mechanisms such as templates and classes.
2.1 C++ Standards
C++ is governed by the ISO C++ standard. There are multiple ISO C++ standards listed here in chronological order: C++03, C++11, C++14, C++17, and the upcoming C++20 standard.
Every C++ standard starting with the C++11 onwards is referred to as “Modern C++.” And modern C++ is what we will be teaching in this book.