Mac Forum / Programming / Mac Programming / March 2007

C++ is different from C, because C was built to execute algorithms and
solve mathematical problems quickly.  C++ is designed to work with
special data types that hold strings of abstract information.  It can
take abstract data types and hold them in containers, that allow you
to work with sets of strings in many useful ways.  It isn't that
complex to understand how to use these new tools, but writing neat,
fast executing code is something that challenges all programmers.
There isn't ever one design for a program, so understanding the design
model behind C++ is just as important as understanding the new tools
in the language like types and containers.  The origonal low level
control of C is still in the language that allows you to access the
every part of the computers memory, and allows you to look at all data
in your program as actually blocks of binary information in memory and
change what it does.

The reason C++ is so powerful is because the hardware for both IBM
PC's and Macintosh's both understand C++.  The C++ language may not
understand how to talk to the hardware 100% of the time, but you can
write your own drivers to communicate with the devices, and even write
your own operating system.  That's what Linux is doing, and that is
what virus writers are doing.  iMac's are better computers because you
can't take them over and hide programs that run independently from the
operating system.  The worst virus on an iMac just rewrites code in
another program and secretly runs as another process, but you can
figure it out, shut it down, and even reinstall the iMac operating
system in about 10 minuets counting the time it takes to reboot.

C++ was created because graphics, and multi-media aren't convenient
mathematical algorithms.  They are just abstract data sets.  And
without C++ you can't begin to code a graphical user interface.  All
the credit in the modern tech revolution really needs to go to the
creators of C++ for enabling companies like IBM and Macintosh to
create hardware that could run what we have today.  And it seems we
are moving beyond the transition to C++ now, and we are entering an
age of hardware and security.  Anyone can become the next Bill Gates,
if they have a super computer cluster, and dedicated lines serving out
bandwidth.  All they need to do is program up a website with CGI, and
code all of the site in C++ or Perl.  Websites like Google, YouTube,
and MySpace, aren't that impressive when you compare them to some of
the software that only runs on one machine at a time.  But the
hardware they are using is, and the processing power.

That's why iMac's are the future, because they run a unix operating
system that is a hybrid with the origonal mac graphical user
interface.  So the Mac's can run all of their own comercial software
and still have a system that enables people to be the next YouTube,
provided that have enough bandwidth and processing power.  So the
future really depends on who can learn Unix programming and Server
Administration faster, before the switch happens.  Because pretty soon
everyone is going to be learning about it in school, and everyone
learning C# and Windows GUI programming is going to be out of a job.