Programming and Graphics

383 Pages·2007·3.62 MB·English

Introduction to C++
Programming and Graphics

Introduction to C++
Programming and Graphics
C. Pozrikidis
1 3
Constantine Pozrikidis
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0411
[email protected]

Cover illustration: The illustration on the front cover shows a twisted nanoring consisting of a
warped hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007921582

ISBN-10: 0-387-68992-3 e-ISBN-10: 0-387-68993-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-387-68992-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-0-387-68993-7

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Preface
The C++ programming language was introduced by Bjarne Stroustrup of the
AT&T laboratories in 1985 as an extension of C, with additional features bor-
rowed from the esoteric language Simula. Since then, C++ has grown rapidly
in response to the practical need for a programming language that is able to
efficientlyhandlecompositeanddiversedatatypes. Thelanguageimplementa-
tionispivotedontheingeniousconceptofobject oriented programming (OOP).
Today, C++ dominates the commercial market and is favored among system
programmers and application developers.
Object oriented programming
Toillustratetheadvantagesofanobjectorientedprogramminglanguage
compared to a structured language such as Matlab, Fortran 77, or C, we
assume that an international sports competition has been entered by runners
from many countries around the globe. The record of each runner consists of
several fields including name, country of origin, city of birth, date of birth, and
best performance time.
In a structured language, each one of these fields is normally registered
inaseparatedatavector. InanOOPlanguage, eachrunnerbecomesanobject
defined as a member of the class of runners, and each member is described by
the collection of these fields. This formalism allows us to record, recall, and
manipulate in any desired way the personal data of each runner using simple
symbolicoperators. Sub-classesconsisting,forexample,ofrunnersofaparticu-
lar nationality can be readily defined to facilitate more detailed manipulations.
AnOOPlanguageallowsustointroduceadatatypeofourchoiceviewed
as an object in a defined class, and then use the class as a building block for
further development. This flexibility essentially allows us to build a language
without building a compiler. In this sense, an OOP language is an ultimate
language.
C and C++
C++isageneralizationofC,butaccomplishesmuchmorethanC,tothe
extent that it should be regarded, studied, and taught as a separate language.
It is neither necessary nor recommended to study C as a prerequisite of C++,
though knowledge of C can be helpful.
vi Preface
This book
This book is a brief and basic introduction to C++ for everyone and
especially for scientists and engineers. The text offers a venue for effectively
teaching and rapidly learning the language at the level of an undergraduate
course in any discipline of the physical sciences and computer science and en-
gineering. The discussion illustrates step-by-step the grammar, syntax, and
main features of the language, and explains the basic premise of OOP with an
emphasis on scientific computing.
Chapter 1 reviews basic concepts of computer hardware software and
programming.
Chapters 2 and 3 outline the general features of C++ and the basic
implementation of the language.
Chapter 4 discusses user-defined functions with an emphasis on scientific
computing.
In Chapter 5 introduces pointers to memory addresses and demonstrates
their applications.
Chapter 6 explains the basic principles of object oriented programming
(OOP) and the implementation of classes.
Chapters 7 and 8 discuss graphics and graphical user interface (GUI)
programming based on the fabulous Vogle library for the X11 server, and on
the GLUT, GLUI, and GTK+ utility toolboxes.
Chapter 9 demonstrates the use of Matlab functions from C++ code
for numerics and graphics.
Transition to C++
Many students, scientists, engineers, and other professionals are familiar
with the general concepts of computer programming, are proficient in an easy
programming language, such as Matlab or Fortran 77, and would like to
learn C++. This book is ideally suited for this audience. Translation tables
demonstratingtheconversionof MatlaborFortran 77codeintoC++code
are given in an appendix. A side-by-side comparison illustrates the syntactic
and functional differences between the three languages.
Keeping it simple
The C++ language is pluralistic in two ways. First, it allows different
commands (tasks) to be stated (implemented) in alternative ways. Second,
Preface vii
it supports several dialects dependent on the chosen compiler. All compilers
support the ANSI/ISO standard C++ functions discussed in this text.
In our discussion, structure and forms that make for a transparent and
efficient, but not necessarily compact, programming style are adopted. Code
obfuscation is avoided at all cost.
Learning from the Internet
This text was written with a new learning model in mind: study a basic
text or take a short course to get acquainted with a subject, and then use the
Internet to master the subject. A wealth of up-to-date resources and tutorials
are available on the Internet on every imaginable subject.
Study this text to get acquainted with C++, and then use the Internet
to master the language.
Book Internet site
This book is accompanied by a library of programs that can be freely
downloaded from the Internet site:
http://dehesa.freeshell.org/ICPPPG
Further information on C++ and links of interest are also provided.
Unix
A C++ programmer without Unix experience is handicapped in many
ways. A number of Unix operating systems are freely available and can be
readily installed either by themselves or in a dual boot mode along with Win-
dows on desktops and laptops Examples include Fedora Core, CentOs, and
BSD. Appendix A summarizes the basic Unix commands.
cygwin for Windows users
The software package cygwin allows Windows users to work in a Unix
environment and utilize Unix libraries and applications on top of the windows
operating system. Effectively, cygwin creates a computer running Unix inside
another computer running Windows. To distinguish between the two, we refer
totheformerasan“environment.” Matlabusersarefamiliarwiththeconcept
of a computing environment. cygwin derives its name from three components:
1. gnu: standing for “GNU’s Not Unix”. This is a free, open-source oper-
ating system consisting of a kernel, libraries, system utilities, compilers,
viii Preface
and end-user applications. Its development was announced by Richard
Stallman in 1983.
2. Cygnus: a genus of beautiful birds.
3. Windows: an operating system produced by the Microsoft corporation.
The cygwin package can be freely downloaded and easily installed from the
Internet site http://www.cygwin.com. The package contains a wealth of ap-
plications and tools, including the X11 graphics library and a C++ compiler.
Windows users are strongly advised to download and install the package as a
prelude to studying this book.
Acknowledgment
I am grateful to Todd Porteous, Conrad Palmer, and Micheal Waltz for
providing hardware, software, and moral support.
I am grateful to anonymous reviewers and to my editor Valerie Schofield
who immediately recognized the significance of this book and provided useful
comments.
C. Pozrikidis
San Diego, March 2007
Contents
1 Computers and Computing 1
1.1 Hardware and software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The binary system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Binary system arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Computer memory and addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 Computer programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.6 Floating-point representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.7 The hexadecimal system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2 General Features of C++ 24
2.1 The main function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2 Grammar and syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3 Data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4 Vectors, arrays, and composite data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.5 System header files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6 Standard namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.7 Compiling in Unix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.8 Simple codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3 Programming in C++ 47
3.1 Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2 Vector and matrix initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3 Control structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4 Receiving from the keyboard and displaying
on the monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.5 Mathematical library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.6 Read from a file and write to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.7 Formatted input and output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.8 Sample algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.9 Bitwise operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.10 Preprocessor define and undefine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88