Teaching C++: experience at Victoria University of Wellington

In 1992 we introduced C++ as one of the major programming languages used in our teaching at the Computer Science Department at Victoria University of Wellington. We now have three years worth of experience of teaching C++ in both university and professional courses, and the paper is a review of the decisions we have made and the experience toe have gained. The paper has three goals. The first is to examine our curriculum design, specifically the choice of programming languages used in our computer science degree programme. We discuss the factors that influenced our choice. The second goal is to present our approach to teaching object-oriented programming in general and C++ in particular. Finally, we discuss our experience associated with teaching C++, in particular focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of the language