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EECS 211 Programming Notes

General Notes

• Good practices in naming and modularity.
• How to test code
• A summary of the containers and algorithms in the Standard Library (formerly called the Standard Template Library or STL)
• Miscellaneous C++ topics especially relevant to this course.

Software

• Cygwin -- a Linux-like environment for Windows, with a setup utility for getting the GNU compiler, make, CppUnit and other useful tools.
  • Course-specific setup instructions
• Code::Blocks -- an integrated development environment for C++ that runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS X.
  • Course-specific setup instructions
• XCode -- an integrated development environment for C++ and other languages that comes with MacOS X.
  • Course-specific setup instructions
• MacPorts -- a MacOS X utility for getting CppUnit and other useful tools.
  • Course-specific setup instructions
• CppUnit -- a package to support unit testing and test-driven development in C++; easily obtained with CygWin or MacPorts.
  • Course-specific setup instructions
• make -- a portable command line tool for building multi-file applications; comes with XCode, available with Cygwin.
  • Course-specific setup instructions
• gdb is the Gnu debugger. It can be run in a console window, but is much easier to use in an IDE. Most IDE's present a very similar interface:
  • Using GDB in Code::Blocks (PDF) -- tutorial starts on page 41
  • XCode Debugging Guide -- Note:
    • With Makefile-based projects, you must uncheck Load symbols lazily in the XCode Debugging Preferences. This only needs to be done once.
    • For some reason, XCode ignores a breakpoint on a CPPUNIT assertion that's the last line of a function.

Programming references and tutorials

The following notes are generally useful resources on the web.

GDB tutorial (PDF)

C++ reference web site

A nice table of the built-in C++ operators, their precedence, and a short example of each

Cay Horstmann's list of C++ pitfalls. Nicely done.

Unix:

• Unix basics (quick reference)
• Linux tutorial

BASH (Bourne Again Shell) is the version of the command shell that runs in Cygwin. Two good sites about BASH commands are:

• BASH Tutorial
• BASH command summary -- nice short readable list, with each command linking to a fuller description

Editors:

• A vi tutorial for beginners (also includes list of vi commands)
• Pico tutorial
• Emacs tutorial

Comments? Send mail to c-riesbeck@northwestern.edu.