Modern C++ Programming Cookbook - Third Edition

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Preprocessing and Compilation

In C++, compilation is the process by which source code is transformed into machine code and organized into object files that are then linked together to produce an executable. The compiler actually works on a single file (called a translation unit) at a time, produced by the preprocessor (the part of the compiler that handles preprocessing directives) from a single source file and all the header files that it includes. This is, however, an oversimplification of what happens when we compile the code. This chapter addresses topics related to preprocessing and compilation, with a focus on various methods to perform conditional compilation, but also touches on other modern topics such as using attributes to provide ...