C++ has been favoured by the professional programmers for many years because of its power and flexibility. Many games have been written in C++. Many of the scripting languages modelled on the syntax and style.

Even today C++ is a popular language, even still amongst the indie game programmers. Its flexible enough to create a Windows UI or program a Unix TCP server.

C++ is a challenging language; but in this course I take you step by step through the basics. Building you skills and through many code examples I show you how to build a program and how to create C++ classes and objects.

So, don't delay, start learning today and you could be using these basics in your next computer program.

This course is an introduction to the C++ programming language for those who are already familiar with C syntax and some basic principles of object oriented programming. C++ is based on C, but extends the language with features such as function templates, namespaces, and (of course) classes. We'll spend a lot of time in the first hour of the course talking about streams, which simplify input and output a great deal.

Here's a list of what you'll learn:

- Primitive data types and variables

- How to create and use namespaces

- Basic I/O in C++ using streams

- Using stringstreams: input and output directly from strings

- File input and output using streams

- Functions: how they're like C functions, and how they differ

- Function templates - a look at writing generic code

- Classes and objects

- Constructors and destructors

- Inheritance (Single and Multiple)

- The idea of friend class members.

If you've been thinking about learning C++, then this course is a good first step.