How C++ Works

• Code is written in a series of source files and then passed to a compiler which produces a binary (a library or an executable program).

• Header files do not get compiled, only .cpp files, but header files get included into cpp files and that's when they get compiled.

• Every cpp file will get compiled individually into an .obj file.

• To stitch all the .obj files together into one .exe file, and that's the Linker's job.

• In C++ there is no such thing as a file.

How The C++ Compiler Works:

• First the compiler preprocesses the code and evaluates all the preprocessor statements.

• Tokenizing C++ code resulting in abstract syntax tree.

• Generate actual machine code.

• A .cpp file doesn't necessarily equal a translation unit because a .cpp file can include other .cpp files and make one translation unit out of them.

How The C++ Linker Works:

• After compiling our source files we need to go through the linking process.

• The linker will find where symbols are and link them together.