C++:1. THE BIG PICTURE

The Object Oriented Approach

          The fundamental idea behind the object-oriented languages is to combine into a single unit both data and the functions that operate on that data. Such a unit is called an object.

          An object's functions, called member functions in C++, typically provide the only way to access its data. If you want to read a data item in an object, you call a member function in an object. It will read the item and return the value to you. You cant access the data directly. The data is hidden, so it is safe for accidental alteration. Data and its functions are said to be encapsulated into a single entity. Data encapsulation and data hiding are the key terms in the description of object-oriented languages. A C++ program typically consists of a number of objects, which communicate with each other by calling one another's member functions.

BINARY CODING SCHEMES

          Now let us consider an important question. How are characters represented 0's and 1's ("off" and "on" electrical states) in the computer? The answer is in the use of binary coding schemes. A binary coding scheme assigns a unique sequence of bits to each character. (See the below image). Two of the most popular binary coding schemes use eight bits or one byte. These two codes are ASCII and EBCDIC. A recently developed code, unicode, uses 16-bits.

LANGUAGE SETTINGS IN WINDOWS VISTA

Devanagari Settings in Windows Vista

          The default language of Windows Vista does not give permission to type the content in certain languages. Thar is why before you start typing on computer in your language of choice, you have to make certain changes in Windows Vista and make it compatible to the fonts of that  particular language. You can make use of the Control Panel in the Windows Vista operating system and add the Devanagari keyboard to it. Click on the 'Start' button on the Taskbar and click on 'Control Panel'. Now click on 'Control Panel Home' option on the left hand side.