Advanced C++ Programming for UNIX and Linux

Course

Inhouse

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Level

    Advanced

  • Methodology

    Inhouse

  • Duration

    5 Days

The course contains a number of challenging exercises. For many of the exercises a lot of the supporting code will be provided, so that students can concentrate on applying one or more key concepts. Exercises will consist of a core problem, followed by several challenges of increasing difficulty. The challenges are meant for post course skills development. The course. Suitable for: The course is for experienced C++ and Unix programmers, who would like to take a more object oriented approach to Unix application development. Attendees are expected to have an engineering "mind set" - i.e. prepared to "get their hands dirty" by experimenting with ideas and programming approaches. The course is also suited to those who will be designing and implementing large complex application frameworks that will be running on Unix / Linux platforms.

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Course programme

Overview
This course covers the mechanics of building complex Unix / Linux based applications in C++. It is a collection of examples and case studies that are important, yet do not seem to be dealt with elsewhere.
A large part of the course explores techniques for implementing wrappers around Unix API system calls in order to implement functionality at a higher level of abstraction, by hiding much of the low level functionality inside a suitable class.
The course also covers techniques for developing Graphical User Interfaces using Widget sets implemented in C++,such as Qt+ and Gtk+, as well as the Motif widget set (which is implemented in C).
The principles of developing distributed applications using CORBA are introduced, as are C++ object oriented approaches to building Socket based applications.
A major section of the course deals with implementing Posix threads based applications in an object oriented manner.

Key Skills
  • C++ Graphical User Interface Implementation
  • Distributed application development using CORBA and C++
  • Implementing wrappers around C based API functionality
  • Working with threads in an object oriented way
  • Working with virtual classes and virtual inheritance
  • Understanding object oriented approaches to network programming and network management
  • Implementing data persistence using serialisation techniques, relational database techniques and object oriented database techniques

Practical Work
The course contains a number of challenging exercises. For many of the exercises a lot of the supporting code will be provided, so that students can concentrate on applying one or more key concepts.
Exercises will consist of a core problem, followed by several challenges of increasing difficulty. The challenges are meant for post course skills development.
The course will use the GNU C++ compiler, Linux and Solaris based workstations The course hours will be from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. for the first four days, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the last day. Students are encourage to come earlier (8 a.m. or to carry on working after class (till 7.00 p.m.) if they wish to. Where students have their own laptops (running either Linux or Solaris) they can work on the challenge exercises at home, or at their hotel in the evenings.
  • Implementing a graph search algorithm using the STL
  • Setting up a CORBA based information service
  • Developing a Motif based query form in C++
  • Implementing Tetris in C++ using Qt+ or Gtk+ as the basis for the user interface
  • Implementing a socket based video data streaming service in C++
  • Devising a multi-threaded simulation of a manufacturing plant
  • Exploring and improving the functionality provided by a basic serialisation library
  • Implementing data persistence using MySQL as the underlying relational database

Course Contents
An overview of C++ - the language, patterns and idioms
  • Inheritance, Polymorphism and all that
  • Function Objects
  • Templates and the Standard Template Library
  • Mixed C and C++ programming
  • Key patterns - Singleton, Observer, Visitor, Composite
  • Templates and the Standard Template Library
  • Namespaces and scope
An overview Unix technologies
  • The POSIX API and its variants
  • Inter-process communication under Unix/Linux
  • The Berkeley Sockets API
  • POSIX Threads (p-threads)
  • The Unix file system
  • X windows
Techniques for Devising and Implementing Wrapper Classes
  • Operating system resources as objects
  • The create a resource, get a handle, manipulate the resource via system and library calls that take a handle as an argument API model
  • Creating classes corresponding to operating system resources - that contain the handle as a member variable, and methods for manipulating the resource that invoke the underlying system and library calls
  • Wrapping up Motif Widgets in C++ - a case study
Extending functionality beyond wrapper classes
  • Managing a collection of child processes
  • Devising two way communication with objects that contain a pair of pipes
  • Creating shared memory objects with built in critical sections
  • Implementing a Model-View-Controller pattern using Motif Widgets
Working with P-threads the object oriented way
  • Designing and implementing a p-thread class
  • Devising and implementing a thread local storage scheme
  • Managing a pool of worker threads
  • Inter-task communication mechanisms for use with p-threads
Working with C++ based widget sets
  • Commonly occurring widgets - buttons, menus, dialogs, list boxes ...
  • Layout managers
  • Overview of Qt+
  • Overview of Gtk+
  • Deriving new widget classes
CORBA and C++
  • Overview of CORBA
  • MICO - Corba implementation
  • ORBACUS - Corba implementation
  • Implementing Client / Server applications in C++ and CORBA
Data Persistence
  • Serialisation - simple and complex
  • Serialisation libraries
  • Use of Smart pointers
  • Persistence using relational databases
  • Persistence using object relational databases
  • Persistence using object oriented databases
Network programming
  • Object oriented perspective on TCP/IP
  • Wrapping up the Sockets API in C++
  • Building application services derived from a Socket class
  • Network management with SNMP
  • An overview of SNMP++

Advanced C++ Programming for UNIX and Linux

Price on request