C++ is the system that programmers use to make their games and programs. They are made up of a system of various files and applications. these are the main ones and the others are just expanding definitions of these. There are lots of great programs that can be used in the c++ scheme but here are some handy ones You will also want a C++ Complier which is availible -------------------------------------------------------- This guide is presented like a course. This course is intended as a first introduction to programming computers using the C++ programming language. It is not assumed that the student has done any programming before hence this course is not comprehensive and does not cover all of C++. In particular it does not cover any of the object-oriented features of C++, these are introduced in the following course (Introduction to Computing II). Because this is a first programming course emphasis is placed on the design of programs in a language-independent fashion. A brief introduction to computers is also given. Before considering the programming of a computer a brief overview of the basic structure of a Computer in terms of its main components is given. Every Computer has the following general structure: Take a minute to think of how that is your computer System. When a computer obeys the instructions in a computer program it is said to be running or executing the program. Before a computer can execute a computer program the program must be resident in memory. The program must occupy a set of consecutive bytes in memory and must be written in the internal machine language for the computer. Each CPU has its own machine language which means that before a program can be executed on another CPU it has to be re-written in the internal machine language of the other CPU. set instruction address to the address of This sequence is usually called the fetch-execute cycle. all computers have an internal machine language which they execute directly. This language is coded in a binary representation and is very tedious to write. Most instructions will consist of an operation code part and an address part. The operation code indicates which operation is to be carried out while the address part of the instruction indicates which memory location is to be used as the operand of the instruction. For example in a hypothetical computer successive bytes of a program may contain: operation where c( ) means `the contents of' and the accumulator is a special register in the CPU. This sequence of code then adds the contents of location 130 to the contents of the accumulator, which has been previously loaded with the contents of location 129, and then stores the result in location 131. Most computers have no way of deciding whether a particular bit pattern is supposed to represent data or an instruction. The Operating System of a computer is a large program which manages the overall operation of the computer system. On a simple one-user computer the Operating System will: Provide an interface to allow the user to communicate with the computer. This interface may be a text-oriented interface where the user types commands in response to a prompt from the computer or may be a mouse-driven Windows operating system. Now if you intend to use th c++ and you computer is linked (LAN) then you might have trouble. If you do get back to me and I will give you a step by step guide on what the terms are and how you might be able to face them. There are various steps involved in producing a computer program for a particular application. These steps are independent of which computer or programming language that is used and require the existence of certain facilities upon the computer. The steps are: Study the requirement specification for the application. It is important that the requirements of the application should be well specified. Before starting to design a program for the application it is necessary that the requirement specification is complete and consistent. For example a requirement specification that says `write a program to solve equations' is obviously incomplete and you would have to ask for more information on `what type of equations?', `how many equations?', `to what accuracy?' etc. The program can now be put into general use - though unless the testing was very comprehensive it is possible that at some future date more logical errors may become apparent. It is at this stage that good documentation produced while designing the program and writing the program will be most valuable, especially if there has been a considerable time lapse since the program was written. these terms dont just go for making new programs but also for applications that we will branch off AOM I support Visual C++ as a good complier so I would download it. But now is time for some questions - I am quite experienced so I might be able to answer all your questions - and if not I have connections who might be able to help me to help you. [This message has been edited by Treebeard III (edited 11-16-2004 @ 01:42 AM).]
The concept that the program to be executed is stored in the computer memory is an important one. This is what makes the computer such a general-purpose problem-solving machine -- merely by changing the program stored in memory the computer can be used to carry out an entirely different task.
Once the program is loaded into memory then the following sequence is carried out:
the first instruction
while program not finished
{
fetch instruction from current instruction address
update current instruction address
execute the fetched instruction
}
code address meaning
00010101 10100001 load c(129) into accumulator
00010111 10100010 add c(130) to accumulator
00010110 10100011 store c(accumulator) in location 131
you always have to keep careful track of which locations they are using to store data, and which locations are to form the executable program. Programming errors which lead to instructions being overwritten with data, or erroneous programs which try to execute part of their data are very difficult to correct. However the ability to interpret the same bit pattern as both an instruction and as data is a very powerful feature; it allows programs to generate other programs and have them executed.
Control the various peripherals e.g. Keyboard, Video Display Unit (VDU), Printer etc. using special programs called Device Drivers.
Manage the user's files, keeping track of their positions on disk, updating them after user makes changes to them etc. An important facility that the Operating System must supply in this respect is an Editor which allows users to edit their files.
Provide system facilities, e.g. Compilers to translate from high-level programming languages used by the user to the internal machine language the computer uses.
Analyse the problem and decide how to solve it. At this stage one has to decide on a method whereby the problem can be solved, such a method of solution is often called an Algorithm.
Translate the algorithm produced at the previous step into a suitable high-level language. This written form of the program is often called the source program or source code. At this stage the program should be read to check that it is reasonable and a desk-check carried out to verify its correctness. A programmer carries out a desk-check by entering a simple set of input values and checking that the correct result is produced by going through the program and executing each instruction themselves. Once satisfied that the program is reasonable it is entered into the computer by using an Editor.
Compile the program into machine-language. The machine language program produced is called the object code. At this stage the compiler may find Syntax errors in the program. A syntax error is a mistake in the grammar of a language, for example C++ requires that each statement should be terminated by a semi-colon. If you miss this semi-colon out then the compiler will signal a syntax error. Before proceeding any syntax errors are corrected and compilation is repeated until the compiler produces an executable program free from syntax errors.
The object code produced by the compiler will then be linked with various function libraries that are provided by the system. This takes place in a program called a linker and the linked object code is then loaded into memory by a program called a loader.
Run the compiled, linked and loaded program with test data. This may show up the existence of Logical errors in the program. Logical errors are errors that are caused by errors in the method of solution, thus while the incorrect statement is syntactically correct it is asking the computer to do something which is incorrect in the context of the application. It may be something as simple as subtracting two numbers instead of adding them. A particular form of logical error that may occur is a run-time error. A run-time error will cause the program to halt during execution because it cannot carry out an instruction. Typical situations which lead to run-time errors are attempting to divide by a quantity which has the value zero or attempting to access data from a non-existent file.
The program must now be re-checked and when the error is found it is corrected using the Editor as in (3) and steps (4) and (5) are repeated until the results are satisfactory.
So that is an intro duction to the c++. the guide is made up of 5 parts this is just an intro. the following guides are going to be on how you relate these things to AOM and other related things. But for now play around with a c++ complier.