Learning to Program in C++

What's Going on Underneath?

In a moment we're going to dive a little deeper into how the CPU accomplishes its task of manipulating data, such as we are doing here with our arithmetic program. First, though, it's time for a little pep talk for those of you who might be wondering exactly why this apparent digression is necessary. It's because if you don't understand what is going on under the surface, you won't be able to get past the "Sunday driver" stage of programming in C++. In some languages it's neither necessary or perhaps even possible to find out what the computer actually does to execute your program, but C++ isn't one of them. A good C++ programmer needs an intimate acquaintance with the internal workings of the language, for reasons ...