Professional C++

866 Pages·2005·3.18 MB·English

by  Solter, Nicholas A

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Professional C++
Nicholas A. Solter
Scott J. Kleper
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01_574841 ffirs.qxd 12/15/04 3:38 PM Page i
Professional C++
Nicholas A. Solter
Scott J. Kleper
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Professional C++
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America
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Solter, Nicholas, 1977-
Professional C++ / Nicholas Solter, Scott Kleper.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7645-7484-1 (paper/website)
1. C++ (Computer program language) I. Kleper, Scott, 1977- II. Title.
QA76.73.C153S665 2005
005.13'3--dc22
2004027959
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Dedications
To Sonja, for her unconditional love and support, and to my son Kai, whose frequent interruptions
reminded me what’s important in life.
—Nicholas A. Solter
To Marni, whose unpredictable cuteness brightens every day.
—Scott J. Kleper
Acknowledgments
We owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who have made this book possible. We’d like to thank
David Fugate of Waterside Productions for all of his advice and guidance, and Robert Elliot at Wiley for
giving two unknown authors the opportunity to tell the C++ story in a new way. This book would not
have turned out nearly as well as it did without the assistance of our development editor, Adaobi Obi
Tulton. Thanks also to Kathryn Malm Bourgoine for her editorial assistance. The photo on the cover,
which artfully minimized our nerdiness, was taken by Adam Tow.
We also want to thank all of the coworkers and teachers who have encouraged us to code the right way
over the years. In particular, thanks to Mike Hanson, Maggie Johnson, Adam Nash, Nick Parlante, Bob
Plummer, Eric Roberts, Mehran Sahami, Bill Walker, Dan Walkowski, Patrick Young, and Julie Zelenski.
Our eternal thanks to Jerry Cain, who not only taught us C++ originally, but also served as technical edi-
tor, religiously analyzing the code in this book as though it were one of our final exams.
Thanks also to the following people, who reviewed one or more chapters: Rob Baesman, Aaron Bradley,
Elaine Cheung, Marni Kleper, Toli Kuznets, Akshay Rangnekar, Eltefaat Shokri, Aletha Solter, Ken Solter,
and Sonja Solter. Any remaining errors are, of course, our own. We’d like to thank our families for their
patience and support.
Finally, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for trying out our approach to professional C++
development.
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Author Bios
Nicholas A. Solterstudied computer science at Stanford University, where he earned bachelor of science
and master of science degrees, with a concentration in systems. While a student, he worked as a teaching
assistant for several classes ranging from introductory computer science for nonmajors to an upper-
division course on group projects and software engineering.
Now a software engineer at Sun Microsystems, Nick programs primarily in C and C++ in his work on
high-availability software. His previous work experience includes several stints in the computer game
industry. At Digital Media International, he was the lead programmer on the multimedia educational
game, The Land Before Time Math Adventure. During an internship at Electronic Arts, he helped develop
the Course Architect 2000 golf course–editing tool for the Tiger Woods PGATour 2000 game.
In addition to his industry experience, Nick taught C++ for one year as an adjunct professor of computer
science at Fullerton College. When not working, Nick enjoys reading, playing basketball, taking care of
his son Kai, and spending time with his family.
Scott J. Kleperbegan his programming career in elementary school, writing adventure games in BASIC
for the Tandy TRS-80. As the resident Mac geek at his high school, Scott moved to higher-level languages
and released several award-winning shareware applications.
Scott attended Stanford University, where he obtained bachelor of science and master of science degrees
in computer science, with a concentration in human-computer interaction. While in college, Scott served
as a teaching assistant for classes involving introductory programming, object-oriented design, data
structures, GUI frameworks, group projects, and Internet programming.
Since graduating, Scott has served as a lead engineer on the founding teams of several companies and is
currently a senior software engineer at Reactivity, Inc. Outside of work, Scott is a compulsive online
shopper, an avid reader, and an awful guitarist.
Credits
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Senior Development Editor
Richard Swadley Adaobi Obi Tulton
Vice President and Publisher Production Editor
Joseph B. Wikert Felicia Robinson
Executive Editor Media Development Specialist
Robert Elliott Richard Graves
Editorial Manager Technical Editor
Kathryn Malm Bourgoine Jerry Cain
Senior Production Editor Text Design & Composition
Geraldine Fahey Wiley Composition Services
Cover Photographer
Adam Tow
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Contents
Introduction xxi
Who This Book Is For xxi
What This Book Covers xxi
How This Book Is Structured xxii
What You Need to Use This Book xxiii
Conventions xxiii
Source Code xxiv
Errata xxiv
p2p.wrox.com xxiv
Part I: Introduction to Professional C++
Chapter 1: A Crash Course in C++ 1
The Basics of C++ 1
The Obligatory Hello,World 2
Namespaces 4
Variables 6
Operators 8
Types 10
Conditionals 12
Loops 14
Arrays 15
Functions 16
Those Are the Basics 17
Diving Deeper into C++ 18
Pointers and Dynamic Memory 18
Strings in C++ 21
References 23
Exceptions 23
The Many Uses of const 25
C++ as an Object-Oriented Language 26
Declaring a Class 26
Your First Useful C++ Program 29
An Employee Records System 29
The Employee Class 29
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Contents
The Database Class 34
The User Interface 38
Evaluating the Program 41
Summary 41
Chapter 2: Designing Professional C++ Programs 43
What Is Programming Design? 44
The Importance of Programming Design 44
What’s Different about C++ Design? 46
Two Rules for C++ Design 47
Abstraction 47
Reuse 49
Designing a Chess Program 50
Requirements 51
Design Steps 51
Summary 56
Chapter 3: Designing with Objects 57
An Object-Oriented View of the World 57
Am I Thinking Procedurally? 57
The Object-Oriented Philosophy 58
Living in a World of Objects 61
Object Relationships 63
Abstraction 73
Summary 76
Chapter 4: Designing with Libraries and Patterns 77
Reusing Code 77
A Note on Terminology 78
Deciding Whether or Not to Reuse Code 78
Strategies for Reusing Code 81
Bundling Third-Party Applications 85
Open-Source Libraries 86
The C++ Standard Library 87
Designing with Patterns and Techniques 101
Design Techniques 101
Design Patterns 102
Summary 103
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Contents
Chapter 5: Designing for Reuse 105
The Reuse Philosophy 106
How to Design Reusable Code 106
Use Abstraction 107
Structure Your Code for Optimal Reuse 108
Design Usable Interfaces 112
Reconciling Generality and Ease of Use 117
Summary 118
Chapter 6: Maximizing Software-Engineering Methods 119
The Need for Process 119
Software Life-Cycle Models 120
The Stagewise and Waterfall Models 121
The Spiral Method 123
The Rational Unified Process 126
Software-Engineering Methodologies 127
Extreme Programming (XP) 128
Software Triage 132
Building Your Own Process and Methodology 132
Be Open to New Ideas 132
Bring New Ideas to the Table 132
Recognize What Works and What Doesn’t Work 133
Don’t Be a Renegade 133
Summary 133
Part II: C++ Coding the Professional Way
Chapter 7: Coding with Style 135
The Importance of Looking Good 135
Thinking Ahead 135
Keeping It Clear 136
Elements of Good Style 136
Documenting Your Code 136
Reasons to Write Comments 136
Commenting Styles 140
Comments in This Book 145
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Contents
Decomposition 145
Decomposition through Refactoring 147
Decomposition by Design 147
Decomposition in This Book 148
Naming 148
Choosing a Good Name 148
Naming Conventions 148
Using Language Features with Style 151
Use Constants 151
Take Advantage of const Variables 151
Use References Instead of Pointers 151
Use Custom Exceptions 152
Formatting 152
The Curly Brace Alignment Debate 153
Coming to Blows over Spaces and Parentheses 154
Spaces and Tabs 154
Stylistic Challenges 155
Summary 155
Chapter 8: Gaining Proficiency with Classes and Objects 157
Introducing the Spreadsheet Example 157
Writing Classes 158
Class Definitions 158
Defining Methods 161
Using Objects 164
Object Life Cycles 165
Object Creation 165
Object Destruction 176
Assigning to Objects 177
Distinguishing Copying from Assignment 180
Summary 182
Chapter 9: Mastering Classes and Objects 183
Dynamic Memory Allocation in Objects 183
The Spreadsheet Class 184
Freeing Memory with Destructors 186
Handling Copying and Assignment 186
Different Kinds of Data Members 194
Static Data Members 195
Const Data Members 196
Reference Data Members 198
Const Reference Data Members 199
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