Summary

In this chapter, we learned how to create C++ projects that are portable and maintainable. We first learned how to create CMake projects and how to import them to Eclipse CDT, giving us the choice to use the command line or an IDE. The rest of the chapter focused on eliminating various problems in our projects. First, we learned how to add unit tests to a project and how to use them to ensure that our code works as intended. We continued this with a discussion about the compilation and linking steps that our code goes through and observed the contents of object files to gain a better understanding of executable files. Then, we learned how to debug our code visually in the IDE to eliminate runtime errors. We finished this discussion with a number of rules of thumb that help create readable, understandable, and maintainable code. These methods will come in handy on your C++ journey. In the next chapter, we will learn more about C++'s type system and templates.