C++

C family · 1985Actively developed

Native performance with classes, templates and control over resources.

Procedural · Object-oriented · Generic

Tracked release

Version: C++23
Artifact: Language standard
Published: 2024-10
Source checked: 2026-10-22

https://www.iso.org/standard/83626.html

Use & ecosystem

Suited for: Systems programming, Embedded devices, High-performance graphics, High-performance computing, Games, Desktop applications, Mobile applications
Family / tradition: C-style
Maturity: Established
Ecosystem breadth: Broad

Stable standards and sustained independent use in games, industrial software, systems and numerical computing support Established and Broad. New standard features and particular libraries can still have incomplete implementation support.

Industry & practical use

C++ is widely used for game engines and gameplay, high-performance graphics, native desktop applications and industrial software. Unreal Engine provides a substantial C++ workflow; Qt serves desktop and embedded applications. NVIDIA’s HPC compilers and libraries support scientific and engineering workloads.

Compilers, libraries & tooling

GCC, Clang and MSVC are major implementations; none is the sole reference compiler. Libraries range from general-purpose components to rendering, numerical and hardware-specific toolkits. Build systems, ABI compatibility and dependency integration require more coordination than in ecosystems with one dominant package workflow.

Platforms & deployment

General toolchains: Linux, Windows, macOS
Specialized tooling: Browser, Android, iOS, Bare metal / microcontrollers
Browser execution: WebAssembly
Native cross-compilation: Established toolchains

Desktop and server targets have mature native toolchains. Android uses the NDK and Apple targets require their SDKs. Emscripten targets browsers. Bare-metal C++ support depends on the target’s runtime facilities; exceptions, RTTI and parts of the standard library may be unavailable or intentionally disabled.

Cross-compilers are established, but the target SDK, C++ standard library, ABI and native dependencies must agree. Cross-building an application with several third-party libraries can be much more involved than compiling a small program.

Project health & support

ISO WG21 develops C++ on a three-year standardization cadence. Multiple compiler vendors and substantial downstream software sustain the ecosystem. New standard features arrive unevenly across compilers and standard libraries, so production use must check implementation support rather than just the standard’s publication date.

Use, ecosystem & platform assessment reviewed 2026-10-22 · Sources below

History & origin

Bjarne Stroustrup began C with Classes at Bell Labs in 1979, combining C with ideas from Simula. Renamed C++ in 1983, the language reached its first commercial release in 1985 and later became an ISO standard.

Creators: Bjarne Stroustrup, Bell Labs
Origin: 1985 — First public appearance; earlier development is noted below.

Influences & descendants

Influenced by

Influenced in this catalogue

Language features

Typing: Static
Execution: AOT
Block structure: Explicit delimiters
Semicolons: Required
Lexical closures: Yes
Namespaced modules: Yes
Pattern matching: No
Macro system: Textual preprocessor macros

Implementation notes

The published standard tracked here is C++23 (ISO/IEC 14882:2024), not a compiler release.
Templates and constexpr enable extensive compile-time programming; the macro system itself is a textual preprocessor.
Pattern matching means language-level structural patterns here, not ordinary switch statements.

Sources & references

Language reference: https://eel.is/c++draft/
History and background: https://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq.html
Preprocessor macros: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/cpp/Macros.html

Use, ecosystem & platform sources

Unreal Engine C++: https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/programming-with-cplusplus-in-unreal-engine?lang=en-US
Qt platforms: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/supported-platforms.html
HPC toolchains: https://developer.nvidia.com/hpc-compilers
Standardization cadence: https://isocpp.org/files/papers/N4862.pdf
Compilers: https://gcc.gnu.org/
Cross-compilation: https://clang.llvm.org/docs/CrossCompilation.html
Android NDK: https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides
Browser toolchain: https://emscripten.org/docs/introducing_emscripten/about_emscripten.html

See the classification definitions for implementation-dependent features. Influence links cover the entries documented here.

Links