Modern C++
Programming
2. Preparation
Federico Busato
2026-01-06
Suggested Books
Programming and Principles
using C++ (3nd, C++23)
B. Stroustrup, 2024
Professional C++
(6th, C++23)
M. Gregoire, 2024
Absolute C++ (6th)
W. Savitch, 2015
2/24
More Advanced Books
Effective Modern C++
S. Meyer, 2014
Embracing Modern C++
Safely
J. Lakos, V. Romeo, R.
Khlebnikov, A. Meredith, 2021
Beautiful C++: 30 Core
Guidelines for Writing Clean,
Safe, and Fast Code
J. G. Davidson, K. Gregory, 2021
3/24
Slide Legend 1/2
⋆
Advanced Concepts. In general, they are not fundamental. They can be
related to very specific aspects of the language or provide a deeper
exploration of C++ features.
A beginner reader should skip these sections/slides.
⇝ See next. C++ concepts are closely linked, and it is almost impossible to
find a way to explain them without referring to future topics. These slides
should be revisited after reading the suggested topic.
Homework. The slide contains questions/exercises for the reader.
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Slide Legend 2/2
this is a code section
This is a language keyword/token and not a program symbol (variable, functions,
etc.). Future references to the token could use a standard code section for better
readability.
8/24
What Compiler Should I Use?
Most popular compilers:
• Microsoft Visual Code (MSVC) is the compiler offered by Microsoft
• The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) contains the most popular C++ Linux
compiler
• Clang is a C++ compiler based on LLVM Infrastructure available for
Linux/Windows/Apple (default) platforms
Suggested compiler on Linux for beginner: Clang
• Comparable performance with GCC/MSVC and low memory usage
• Expressive diagnostics (examples and propose corrections)
• Strict C++ compliance. GCC/MSVC compatibility (inverse direction is not ensured)
• Includes very useful tools: memory sanitizer, static code analyzer, automatic formatting,
linter, etc.
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Install the Compiler on Linux
Install the last gcc/g++ (v14)
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install gcc-14 g++-14
$ gcc-14 --version
Install the last clang/clang++ (v21)
$ wget https://apt.llvm.org/llvm.sh
$ chmod +x llvm.sh
$ sudo ./llvm.sh 21
$ clang++ --version
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Install the Compiler on Windows
Microsoft Visual Studio
• Direct Installer: Visual Studio Community 2026
Clang on Windows
• Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
• Windows Powershell → wsl –install -d Ubuntu-24.04
• Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName
VirtualMachinePlatform -All -NoRestart
• Enable virtualization support in UEFI/BIOS:
Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) (Intel) or SVM Mode (AMD)
• Clang + MSVC Build Tools
• Download Build Tools per Visual Studio
• Install Desktop development with C++
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What Editor/IDE/Compiler Should I Use? 1/3
Popular C++ IDE (Integrated Development Environment):
• Microsoft Visual Studio Most popular IDE and compiler (MSVC) for Windows .
• Clion (free for non-commercial use). Powerful IDE with a lot of options.
• QT-Creator . Fast C++ IDE.
• XCode . Default IDE on Mac OS
• Cevelop C++ IDE based on Eclipse.
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What Editor/IDE/Compiler Should I Use? 1/3
Standalone GUI-based coding editors:
• Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VSCode)
• Cursor is an AI-powered code editor designed to enhance the software development
process. Based on Microsoft Visual Studio Code.
• Void Editor is an open-source Cursor alternative.
• Windsurf Windsurf Editor is an AI-powered editor designed to deeply integrate artificial
intelligence into the coding workflow.
• Sublime is a sophisticated, high-performance text editor.
• Lapce is a modern, open-source code editor written in Rust, designed for speed.
• Zed is a high-performance code editor built from scratch in Rust, focusing on speed,
collaboration, and AI integration
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How to Compile?
Compile C++11, C++14, C++17, C++20, C++23, C++26 programs:
g++ -std=c++11 <program.cpp> -o program
g++ -std=c++14 <program.cpp> -o program
g++ -std=c++<version> <program.cpp> -o program
Any C++ standard is backward compatible*
C++ is also backward compatible with C in most case, except if it contains C++
keywords (new, template, class, typename, etc.)
We can potentially compile a pure C program in C++26
*except for very minor deprecated features
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C++ Standard
Compiler
C++11 C++14 C++17 C++20
Core Library Core Library Core Library Core Library
g++ 4.8.1 5.1 5.1 5.1 7.1 9.0 11 14
clang++ 3.3 3.3 3.4 3.5 5.0 11.0 19+ 19+
MSVC 19.0 19.0 19.10 19.0 19.15 19.15 19.29+ 19.29
C++23, C++26 are working in progress
en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support
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Hello World 1/2
C code with printf :
# include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf("Hello World!\n");
}
printf
prints on standard output
C++ code with streams :
# include <iostream>
int main() {
std::cout << "Hello World!\n";
}
cout
represents the standard output stream
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Hello World 2/2
The previous example can be written with the global std namespace:
# include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
cout << "Hello World!\n";
}
Note: For sake of space and for improving the readability, we intentionally omit the
std namespace in most slides
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I/O Stream (std::cout) 1/3
std::cout is an example of output stream. Data is redirected to a destination, in
this case the destination is the standard output
# include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int a = 4;
double b = 3.0;
char c[] = "hello";
printf("%d %f %s\n", a, b, c);
}
# include <iostream>
int main() {
int a = 4;
double b = 3.0;
char c[] = "hello";
std::cout << a << " " << b << " " << c << "\n";
}
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C:
C++:
I/O Stream (Why should we prefer I/O stream?) 2/3
• Type-safe: The type of object provided to the I/O stream is known statically by the
compiler. In contrast, printf uses % fields to figure out the types dynamically
• Less error prone: With I/O Stream, there are no redundant % tokens that have to
be consistent with the actual objects passed to I/O stream. Removing redundancy
removes a class of errors
• Extensible: The C++ I/O Stream mechanism allows new user-defined types to be
passed to I/O stream without breaking existing code
• Comparable performance: If used correctly may be faster than C I/O ( printf ,
scanf , etc.)
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I/O Stream (Common C errors) 3/3
• Forget the number of parameters:
printf("long phrase %d long phrase %d", 3);
• Use the wrong format:
int a = 3;
...many lines of code...
printf(" %f", a);
• The %c conversion specifier does not automatically skip any leading white space:
scanf("%d", &var1);
scanf(" %c", &var2);
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std::print
C++23 introduces an improved version of printf function std::print based on
formatter strings that provides all benefits of C++ stream and is less verbose
# include <print>
int main() {
std::print("Hello World! {}, {}, {}\n", 3, 4ll, "aa");
// print "Hello World! 3 4 aa"
}
This will be the default way to print when the C++23 standard will be widely adopted
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