Now on the other side of the world, the Chinese and the Japanese gave names to these planets using their classical elements (the Chinese and Japanese names are the same). They gave the celestial bodies these names:

So now, when the Japanese went to adopt the western calendar, they took the base meanings of the days of the weeks by their planets, and used their planet names in their place. So Sunday (from the sun) became “日曜日”, Monday (from the moon) became “月曜日” and so forth. Like this:

Cool, huh?

See the post for Day 1 and 2 here

We woke up in the morning to find that the hostel staff restored the hot water again.  So after a nice long shower, we resumed our sightseeing.  We would have liked to have breakfast at the hostel too, but we took too long (or woke up too late).  Instead, we had to find a supermarket to buy food.  We carried the bread, ham and cheese to the Coliseum and ate it there.

The Coliseum

We sat outside under the shade of the massive structure and just took out all the food.  While we ate though, bees kept annoying us and went after the package of ham.  It made no sense to me.  I thought bees only wanted nectar.  After spending a bit of time killing the bees, we resumed eating.  After finishing up, we walked around the Coliseum until we found the entrance.

From the outside, we could already see the massive structure.  It was clear that much of the structure had fallen apart since it was built.  Entire layers of the coliseum had collapsed over time.  What remained didn’t look that sturdy either.  A lot of preservation work must have been done to it to prevent the whole structure from collapsing.  Even on the walls, one could see many holes in it that used to hold up ornaments and other decorations when the structure was still in use.  The structure is certainly a great feat of Roman engineering.

Now that the structure is used purely for tourism, a lot of street vendors naturally set up shop here (it’s kind of weird sometimes because every single one of these street vendors I’ve seen are black).  It’s quite funny to see them all pack their stuff up really fast (it’s like they’re used to it) when cops showed up.  It really reminded me of those food vendors on the street in Hong Kong except without the carts.  Even better were the people dressed up as Roman Legions that got their pictures taken with people.

Because we purchased the Roma Pass (thanks to my friends European travel book) when we arrived at the airport, we were able to get free direct entry into any two museums in Rome (as well as unlimited travel on the metro system) for 3 consecutive days.  We used our pass at the coliseum and walked straight inside.  We didn’t even have to wait in line.  As we walked, everyone seemed to look at us wondering why we didn’t have to wait.  It was like being a VIP.

Walking into the main arena area of the coliseum really reminded me of the movie Gladiator.  The floor of the arena had long since collapsed so looking into the center only reveals the hidden rooms and passageways that used to serve as the barracks for the other gladiators.  To show what the area would have been like, there was a reconstructed portion of the arena floor.

The seating areas of the coliseum seems to have collapsed as well.  At first I wondered where people actually sat when watching shows.  We pretty much walked around the entire circumference of the coliseum and did not find any.  They must have all collapsed, which could explain why some areas had concrete poured over it to preserve the structural integrity.  At least that’s what I think based on the slabs of concrete that covered a lot of the area.

Some parts of the coliseum featured exhibits of its history too and that was quite interesting to see.  After going through the exhibits, we tried to go up to the third floor, but it had been closed off for some reason.  Somehow, a few people managed to get up there anyways.  Since we didn’t know how to get passed the locked metal gate, we saw whatever else we could and then afterward, we went to the Roman Forum.

Forum Romanum

Again, we used our Roma Pass to bypass the line and it felt so good being able to do that.  The Roman Forum was a large excavation site and so there was a lot of Roman ruins in the area.  It was basically the ruins of an entire city.  Looking on the map, we saw that there was so much to see there.  In the few hours that we were there for, we didn’t even go through it all.

We hadn’t completely recovered from all the walking we did the day before and the walking at the coliseum so we took it easy.  It would be interesting to see just how many kilometers we had all walked since the start of the trip.

Memorial to Vittorio Emanuele II

We ended up staying at the forum until the attraction closed and then afterward, we went to the memorial to Vittorio Emanuele II.  This memorial was the largest memory I’d ever seen.  It seems that this person was so important to the Italian people that they gave him a giant memorial with ceremonial guards. Seems kind of pompous to me actually. I looked up this person on Wiki and apparently, he was the first king of a unified Italy.

When we looked at the whole memorial, we wondered how long the ceremonial guards stayed out there for and how the guards would change shifts.  As we were discussing it, we saw three guards march out from the memorial to relieve the current ones.  The new guards switched places with the old ones by marching into their previous standing spot.  The relieved guards would then march away.

Trattoria Der Pallaro

By now, we were really hungry and after looking at my friend’s guide book for restaurant recommendations, we decided on going to a place called Trattoria Der Pallaro.  The cool thing about that restaurant was that it had no menu for people to pick food from.  Guests were served what the restaurant chose to serve.  For 25 euros, people got served a multicourse meal and didn’t get to choose what food they got.  It seemed like a really cool idea.

When we sat down, the waiter asked us whether we wanted red or white wine (probably the only choice for the entire meal).  After we answered, he returned with jugs of wine that amounted to about half a liter per person.  We all thought that was a little too much wine.  Next up was some bread and side orders of olives, ham/smoked meat, lentils, tomatoes and these fried fish balls (I don’t know what they are called).  That amount of food would have been enough for most people.  But knowing that was only the first course, we knew that there’d be more food to come.

For the next course, we were served a penne carbonara.  Half of it had this really delicious cheese sauce while the other half had a less delicious tomato sauce (but still super good compared to other pasta I’ve eaten).  I think that was the best pasta I’ve ever had, but then again, I don’t eat much pasta.

While we ate, I observed how the restaurant functioned since I reasoned that the place would be really efficient at cooking since everyone got the same dishes.  Indeed it was true.  The chef cooked batches and batches of the same thing and the waiters just scooped out the proper proportions for serving.  All they needed to do was keep track of which part of the meal each table was at.

In the third course, we got another serving of bread, but this time with veal, mozzarella balls, zucchini, and potato chips (I guess that random food thing can be a hit or miss on some dishes).  During all this eating, we kept drinking the wine, and I’m sure we would have gotten really drunk (or at least really buzzed) from it if not for all the food we ate.

In the fourth and final course, we were served this lemon cheesecake (at least I think it was cheesecake) with a small glass of peach juice (probably the size of a shot).  Best juice I’ve ever had.  The cheesecake was super good too.  We ended up finishing all the food and the wine.  Despite how expensive that restaurant was, it was totally worth it.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart

The next day, we tried to go to the National Museum of Rome, but we didn’t know that it closed on Mondays.  Instead, we went to the nearby Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  When we went in, this old man who was part of the church greeted us and started talking with us.  He asked us the usual questions like where we were from and what not.  He also talked about the history of the church.  It really surprised me how good his English was.  I didn’t even expect an old Italian man to know it.  He seemed like a really nice guy. He showed us around and insisted that we take some free postcards of the church.

We stayed at the church until it was time to take the bus back to the airport.  We bought our bus tickets from a fellow that I thought looked kind of shady and for some reason he insisted that I put my backpack in the baggage compartment of the bus.  I did as I was told, but I worried so much for my stuff.  I really hoped that no one would steal anything while the door was open when the bus waited for people to board.  From where I was, I wouldn’t have seen anything if someone stole my bag.  I asked my friend sitting close to the window to spot my bag for me just in case.  When we got to the airport, I got my bag and made sure everything was still there.  My friend then told me how he saw the man that we bought the tickets from rummage through someone’s stuff and it looked like he could have stolen something too.  If my bag had been stolen, I would have lost everything.  I guess that taught me to keep all my important documents on my person.

Going Home

On the way back, my friends and I had a nice and long conversation about our views on certain things in life.  It was a super random conversation, but it was fun to talk about this like our childhood and how we were raised.

When we got off the plane and walked towards our bus, we got stopped by these two police officers.  We showed them our passports when they asked for them, but then they walked away with them for a little bit.  When they came back, they asked us if we were in the military.  We all thought it was an odd question and just told them no.  Then they said, “ok”, gave our passports back and we were on our way.  It was really weird and random.  Did we stand out that much in Germany?

During the two hour train ride, we talked about more random stuff.  During the conversations, I realized a lot of things in my childhood, the way I was raised, and my culture that really affected who I am today.  The whole conversation just seemed really profound.

We got home at around 7 pm and after cooking and eating dinner, I sat down to blog and upload my pictures as I always did after each trip.

More photos here

After almost four years of using my Inspiron 1520, its age finally caught up with it and its light literally went out.  The backlight refuses to turn on now.  I came back from Berlin last Monday and found my computer in this state.  I left it off during that time too.  During this time, I had trouble doing any blogging and uploading any photos.

Google told me that the problem lay with either a loose connection, the inverter or the lamp.  I tried to check this out myself and open the computer case, but the screws refused to budge.  People online somehow got theirs open, but I couldn’t.

Unfortunately, my warranty expired so I’d have to pay to get this computer fixed.  I looked at my options on the Dell site and the North American Dell Support refused to help me and kept referring me to the European side even though I bought my computer in Canada (I really don’t know what these guys at the call centers are doing).  After about three calls to the support line, I finally found someone helpful and she told me that I had to change my laptop registration such that it showed a European location before I could get it fixed.  An alternative option would have been to send the computer back to Canada to get it fixed.

What I did instead was just buy a new laptop.  My laptop is already super old and already can’t really keep up with my tasks anyway, so I suppose it’s time for an upgrade.  What surprised me was that laptops in Germany (from their Best Buy/Future Shop equivalents anyway) cost so much more than in North America.  In fact, it was cheaper for me to buy my computer in Canada and get my parents to ship it to me rather than buying it locally.  I’m sure there are cheaper places, but I don’t exactly know how to look through all these German websites.  Another added advantage in buying from Canada is that I’d have a computer with the US Keyboard layout rather than the German one.  And in the future when my laptop needs repairs, it’ll be easy.

In the meantime, I’m using a 17 inch LCD screen that I borrowed from a friend.  This will suffice until my new computer arrives.  No more shining a lamp at my computer screen and squinting my eyes to see the screen anymore.  I also don’t need to be using my phone to go on the internet at home either.

When I first arrived in Germany, I was informed that every year in Cologne, a carnival would take place where people partied from dusk till dawn. I was even told that “people are drunk before 12”. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. The carnival attracted people from all walks of life. Whether they were people from England, France, America, China or any other country. Tradition has it that everyone is supposed to dress up in a costume for the carnival. I didn’t do it do it though. My excuse: I’m a foreigner. The carnival festivals would have already begun by the time I arrive, but I’ll be in time for Rosenmontag, when the parade is held.

To get to Cologne, my friend and I took the InterCity train. It goes a lot faster than the RB and RE trains that we took before. We reached Heidelberg in 45 minutes instead of the hour and a half it took us before. Every time the train goes through a tunnel my ears went crazy similar to how it feels when a plane takes off. As should have been expected, the train to Cologne was super packed and we spent the better part of half an hour standing until the conductor came by and informed us that there were empty seats near the back of the train. I sat down with a group of Chinese and Taiwanese exchange students. Probably because I’m used to seeing Asians everywhere like in Vancouver, it seemed a lot more normal to me when I sat down with the Asian crowd.

I started a conversation with them in Mandarin since I’ve barely spoken a word of Chinese to anybody except to my parents and asked them where they were from. We all ended up talking until the end of the train ride. I tried my best to speak in Mandarin, but seeing that I barely know the language I often couldn’t understand what was being said and couldn’t express myself. Luckily one of the people in their group spoke Cantonese and was able to translate. Ironically, this was the most Mandarin I ever spoke in my life in a single day. Eventually, we all just ended up speaking English. I suppose thats the way it works when a group of Asians all speak different dialects of Chinese.

One of the girls had a habit of keeping a list of names of everyone she has met with where and when they met. Interesting hobby. In a way, it’s like signing someone’s yearbook at the end of the school year. Before the train ride ended, we all took a picture together even though we had just met. My friend and I thought that was really funny since we and the group of interns always talked about the stereotype where Asians really like to take pictures.

We went our separate ways not long after we arrived at the Koln Hauptbahnhof. When we exited the station, we saw huge crowds of people dressed up in costumes and some were dancing to carnival music with beers in their hands. Groups of people gathered around street performers playing carnival music and looked like they were having a great time. Looking further into the distance, the sight of the Koln Dom struck us. This cathedral totally sets the first impressions for every single person who visits this city. It was taller and bigger than all the churches and cathedrals I saw in the past. I stood about 50 m away from it and still couldn’t get a complete shot of it. My next thought was, “We have to go inside.” Unfortunately, the church was closed because of the carnival. I hoped that maybe we could visit it the next day, Sunday, when people go to church.

According to the tourist info center, almost all of the city’s tourist attractions would be closed for the carnival, which meant there was nothing to see except the carnival. We walked around the plaza where the cathedral was and saw the most unique costumes ever. Even hobos on the street had a costume. Apart from the usual ones like schoolgirls, policemen, and suits of various animals, by far the best one was a group of people dressed up as bulls and Spaniards to reenact the bull festival. Unfortunately, they ran by too fast for me to be able to get a picture of it. The ones dressed up as the bulls literally ran after the others down the street. Everyone heard their yelling and screaming and they definitely attracted a lot of attention.

Prior to coming to Cologne, we organized the trip with other interns at UBC that currently work in Hanover. While we waited for the others to arrive, the only thing to do was to go to our hotel and drop off our things and walk around the city center. As expected, all the shops on the street were closed, except for restaurants, souvenir stores and street vendors. Since we planned the trip late, all of the hotels/hostels close to the city center were either booked way in advance or costed an arm and a leg. We ended up staying at a hotel in a suburb called Wahn, and it took a bus and a train ride to get to the city center.

The hotel gave off a Chinese vibe the moment we went in because the hotel’s restaurant served Chinese food and they hung up Chinese paintings everywhere. I even overheard one of the chef’s speaking in Mandarin to someone else over the phone. The reason I even mention this is because I didn’t think Germany’s Asian community was that large so I didn’t expect something like this. Almost all the Asians I see come to Germany as tourists.

After dropping off our things at the hotel we walked to the train station since we never figured out the location of the bus stop. Along the way, we found the townspeople in the suburb had their own carnival parade. As usual, almost every adult held a beer in their hand. It was nowhere as massive as the celebration in the city center, but the streets were crowded enough such that it took us at least half an hour to walk to the station when it should have taken only twenty minutes. Everywhere I went, I’d always step on glass from people just smashing the shot bottles on the ground when they were done with them. These were everywhere in the city center.

After arriving at the main station again, we met up with the others from UBC. The party began at that point. After all, the Cologne Carnival gives people good reason to party even harder than usual. After buying the local beer, the ten of us went to one of the rooms they stayed at and got our drink on. Before long, a lot of us were tipsy, if not drunk. Good thing for me though, is that I only had 2 beers. I didn’t quite like the taste of Koelsch. Before going outside, we carried as much beer as we could. While outside, we looked for a bar or club. Cologne at night became a totally different place. Everyone outside at night were pretty much people who probably had too much to drink. I know this happens in big cities, but during the carnival, there are just more drunks out than usual. A lot of the drunkards broke out in carnival folk songs, while we as Canadians sang the Canadian national anthem. The people there probably didn’t even know what we were singing about.

Even in our intoxicated state, we still looked at the Cologne Dom in amazement. I couldn’t stop looking at it. I even managed to get some nighttime photos of it. Looking at those pictures, a lot of them were quite blurry. Around the church plaza, we’d hear a group of people just randomly yelling every now and then.

When we got to the old town, there were a lot more people than at the cathedral, and like us, they too wandered around the town looking for a good time. And almost right away, our group separated. It’s quite difficult to keep a bunch of drunk people together I guess. We ended up in several different bars and not really staying in one place for over ten minutes. Nothing super crazy happened anyway. My friend and I stayed out late enough to miss our last bus back to our hotel, so we ended up speedwalking our way back in the freezing cold. That was a very long fifteen minutes. At the time, everything felt great, but once I sobered up the next day, I realized everything I did at the time was completely pointless.

The next morning, we went back into town and went to the tourist information center to see what was open today. While there, I saw two of the Asian girls we met on the train here and they told us the cathedral was open and that they went there already. I was very eager to go inside the cathedral. It’s one of the most amazing works of architecture and civil engineering of the olden times I’ve ever seen. The inside of the cathedral didn’t disappoint either. When I walked in, a sermon was going on so none of the tourists were allowed to freely wander around. But since a sermon was happening, we heard the church organs. The music filled the entire cathedral and everyone probably thought that was the most beautiful church music they’ve ever heard in their life.

I noticed that all the churches and cathedrals I’ve visited follow a similar pattern in their construction. Above the entrance is always the church tower with the bells and the left and right sides of the entrance are usually statues set up to illustrated Jesus’ sacrifice in some way. The windows there always face east west, probably to allow the suns rays to illuminate the entire scene.

The agenda today for the carnival was that there would be a parade featuring the children of Cologne. No offense to the children, but the parade really wasn’t all that interesting or maybe I’m just not a fan of parades. The best thing about it though was that they gave out candy. They grabbed handfuls and handfuls of candy and just threw it at the crowds. At one point they even brought out a catapult. The more candy they threw out, the more candy wrappers ended up on the street. But since the city has been doing the carnival for years, they were quite prepared. The fact that the garbage crews cleaned up the town overnight amazed me. There was almost no more broken glass everywhere, but that all changed as the day went on.

The best part of today was visiting the Rhine River that goes through Cologne. On such a sunny day, the view was amazing. While walking across the bridge to the other side of the Rhine we saw that on the entire length of the bridge couples that just got married would place locks on the fence stating their names and their date of marriage. There were easily at least a hundred thousand locks. We met up with our friends from UBC and together we chilled at a spot overlooking the Rhine, and watched as the sun slowly set.

Almost everywhere we went, we could hear carnival music, either from marching bands, street performers or giant speakers. It really set the mood for the whole celebration.

For dinner, I had a very unique steak sandwich. The steak itself was probably three times the size of the bread. It was about half an inch thick at least six inches in length and width. It costed six euros, but it was definitely worth it.

At night, the same routine as last night happened, but while we were drinking, we heard stories of the night before. All the stories just sounded super outrageous. I heard stories about people randomly smashing a baby carriage, high on weed, falling asleep on the street, eating breakfast with a bunch of probably homosexual Austrians dressed up as band members from KISS, and partying at a gay club. None of that happened to me (which is good), but those stories were definitely fun to hear. Since it was Sunday, the parties were not as crazy as the night before. There were a lot less people out. But we did see a really drunk French person on the street. What was so funny about him was that he kept taking our beer bottles and doing tricks with them like walking around with a bottle balanced on his head. The scary part was that he was really good at it. But like the night before, everything we did seemed pointless the next morning.

The monday of the carnival, known as Rosenmontag, featured the biggest parade of the carnival and is probably attracted more visitors than any other day of the carnival. When the parade started, we were walking on the parade route for some reason, which was kind of strange. Luckily, we weren’t the only ones so it wasn’t as awkward as it was supposed to be. The parade was similar to the previous days’ parade, but there a lot more marching bands that played and larger parade floats. They gave out more candy too. People would call out “kamelle!”, which means “sweets” in order to get the people in the parade to throw candy to them. Some of the floats had political messages about Facebook and Google Streetview denying people of their privacy. On four separate occasions, a chocolate bar hit me directly in the head. One of them impacted directly on my sunglasses and protected me. I ate so much candy that after watching the parade for over four hours that my stomach told me it had enough. I didn’t even eat dinner. In the beginning, we were all excited about catching the candy they threw at us, but four hours later, we thought, “when does the parade end?” At one point we began to dodge the candy thrown at us. We had way too much. Seeing that the parade hadn’t ended for so long, and that we stood in the cold for all that time, we left prematurely before taking the train back to Stuttgart. While walking back, we came across someone throwing confetti and I somehow managed to walk right into a cluster of flying confetti. During the course of the parade, the city turned from something beautiful into a city with garbage laden streets. Most people never took the time to throw their candy wrappers in the garbage. And also like the other nights, broken beer bottles filled the streets. It also didn’t help when people kept throwing confetti into the air.

Before leaving, I took a few more pictures of the cathedral. I kept thinking I needed more and more pictures of it. The architecture just amazed me so much.

On the way back, our IC train was delayed so we got to ride the faster ICE train in order to make our connecting train on time. We didn’t get a seat since there was basically two trains ful of people jam packed into one train. We ended up at Frankfurt Airport as part of the slight detour. The trains that we took were all full of people who had just come from the carnival and were probably still super drunk. They stayed on the train that way and ended up yelling, screaming and banging on the walls for the whole duration of the ride. Public intoxication is a very common thing in Germany, and it’s not only on special occasions like these. After four hours of train rides, we finally got home, and just in time to sleep and go back to work the next day…

My photo album for Cologne

asm (seldom used)

• Used to insert assembly language commands directly into the code. This function is very tricky to use even for professional programmers and can cause portability issues.
  

  asm(“instruction”);

auto

• Used to declare local variables but is purely optional.
  

  auto int i = 5;

  The previous declaration thus has identical meaning to the following declaration.

  int i = 5;

bool (C++ only)

• Used to declare a Boolean logic variable; a variable that can have the value true or false. This variable type is normally 8 bits (1 byte) long.
  

  bool t = true;

break

• Used to break out of a loop independant of the loop condition. Also, used to finish a switch statement, keeping the program from “falling through” to the next case in the code.
  

  while(x < 100)
  {
      if(x < 0)
           break;
      cout << x << endl;
      x++;
  }
  

case

• Used as a label to declare a single test in a switch statement.
  

  case 1: command1;
          command2;
          break;
  

catch (C++ only)

• Used to handle exceptions generated by a throw statement.
  

  catch(const char* e)
  {
      //handle exception
  }
  

char

• Used to declare character variables. This variable type is normally 8 bits (1 byte) long.
  

  char c = ‘h’;

class (C++ only)

• Used to define a new class. Members of the class are private by default unless listed under the protected or public labels.
  

  class class-name : inheritance-list
  {
      public:
          public-members-list;
      protected:
          protected-members-list;
      private:
          private-members-list;
  } object-list;
  

  • class-name is the name of the class that is being created.
  • inheritance-list is the optional list of classes inherited by the new class.
  • public-members-list is the list of public members of the class.
  • protected-members-list is the list of protected members of the class.
  • private-members-list is the list of private members of the class.
  • object-list is an optional list used to immediately instantiate 1 or more instances of the class.

  class Date
  {
  public:
      void display();
  
  private:
      int day;
      int month;
      int year;
  }
  

const (C++ only)

• Used to tell the compiler that a certain object should not be modified once it has been initialized.
  

  const int i = 5;

• Used to declare a pointer so that the value of the pointer (the memory location to which it points) can be modified, but the data in the memory location cannot be changed.
  

  const int* j = new int(3);

• Used to declare a pointer so the that value of the pointer (the memory location to which it points) cannot be modified, but the data in that memory location can be changed.
  

  int* const j = new int(3);

• Used to declare a member function that does not modify the object’s state, meaning that it should be used for methods like print so that data in the object cannot be changed accidentally. If and attempt is made to modify the object in any way, a compilation error will be triggered.
  

  void print(bool verbose) const;

const_cast (C++ only, seldom used)

• Used to remove the const protection on a variable as long as the original variable was not declared as a const. The target type must be the same as the original type.
  

  const_cast<target_type> (object);

continue

• Used to jump to the next iteration of a loop. The following example will print out all of the numbers from 1 to 20 except for 10.
  

  for(int i = 0; i < 21; i++)
  {
      if(i == 10)
          continue;
      cout << i << endl;
  }
  

default

• Used as a label to declare the default case of a switch statement.
  

  case 1:  command1;
           command2;
           break;
  
  default: command1;
           command2;
           break;
  

delete (C++ only)

• Used to free memory allocated for a pointer back to the heap. The argument should have been allocated through a call to new. To delete an array, use the following form of delete: delete[]
  

  delete p;
  delete[] pArray;

do

• Used to create a loop that is executed at least once. The terminating condition is tested at the end of the loop.
  

  do
  {
      cout << "hello worldn";
      i++;
  } while(i < 5)
  

double

• Used to declare a double-precision floating-point type variable. This variable type is normally 64 bits (8 bytes) long.
  

  double d = 12.55;

dynamic_cast (C++ only, seldom used)

• Used to cast from one type to another with a check performed at runtime. If the cast types are incompatible, NULL is returned.
  

  dynamic_cast<target_type> (object);

else

• Used for an alternative condition in an if statement.
  

  if(i == 1)
  {
      // do something
  }
  else
  {
      // do something else
  }
  

enum

• Used to define an enumerated type. Each of the names in the name-list are given a distinct value. This should be used in place of defining variables using “magic numbers” (eg. int Monday = 0, int Tuesday = 1, etc).
  

  enum name {name-list};

  • name is the name of the enumerated type that was created
  • name-list is the list of names of the elements

  enum weekdays {Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday};

explicit (C++ only)

• Used to make sure that a constructoor is only used for the creation of new values and not used for the implicit conversion between two different types. It will only be be used if the initialization exactly matches the call to that constructor. This keyword is only needed with one-argument constructors.
  

  class vector
  {
      ...
      explicit vector(int v);
      ...
  }
  

  Using this keyword, some mysterious errors can be caught by the compiler like the following:

  vector<int> v(10);
  v = 5; // error, meant to write v[0] = 5
  

  The problem in this code if the explicit keyword was not specified is that the v = 5 statement would invoke the constructor, creating a new vector of size 5 and destroying the old one.

export (C++ only, seldom used)

• Used to export a template to other modules. Most compilers require template definitions to be explicitly specified in the header file since the Comeau C++ compiler seems to be the only compiler that supports this keyword.
  

  // In MyTemplateFunction.h
  template
  void myTemplateFunction(const T &t1);
  
  // In MyTemplateFunction.cpp
  export template
  void myTemplateFunction(const T &t1)
  {
      ...
  }
  

extern

• Used to inform the compiler of variables and functions that are defined outside of the current scope or module. Variables defined as extern will not have space allocated for them since they are defined elsewhere.
  

  extern char* message;

false (C++ only)

• Used to represent the Boolean value false.
  

  bool b = false;

float

• Used to declare a single-precision floating-point type variable. This variable<br> type is normally 32 bits (4 bytes) long.
  

  float f = 3.5;

for

• Used to create a loop that is meant to initialize, test and update a variable.
  

  for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
  {
      cout << "i is " << i << endl;
  }
  

friend (C++ only)

• Used to allow another class or function to have access to the private features of that class.
  

  friend void print(bool verbose);
  friend class Vector;

goto (seldom used)

• Used to jump to another location in a function specified by a label. This is generally considered harmful and should not be used unless necessary.
  

  goto labelA;
  ...
  labelA:

if

• Used to create a conditional branch statement so that different code can be executed under different conditions. The conditions are evaluated in the order that they appear in the code.
  

  if (i < 0)
  {
      cout << "i is negative";
  }
  else if(i == 0)
  {
      cout << "i is 0n";
  }
  else
  {
      cout << "i is posativen";
  }
  

inline (C++ only)

• Used to tell the compiler that the function an its body are inserted into the calling code meaning that it has to expand the function in-place instead of just insert a call to the function. Functions that have static data, loops, switches or recursive calls cannot be inlined.
  

  inline int test(int A)
  {
      ...
  }
  

int

• Used to declare an integer type variable. This variable type is normally 32 bits (4 bytes) long.
  

  int i = 3;

long

• Used as a data type modifier for the int and double types to indicate that they may have more bytes then the type has available. This variable type is normally 32 or 64 bits (4 or 8 bytes) long.
  

  long int i = 100000;

mutable (C++ only)

• Used to specify that it is a data field that can be modified even if another part of the data is declared const.

namespace (C++ only)

• Used to create a new scope. Once created, the namespace must be refered to either directly or with the using keyword.
  

     namespace CartoonNameSpace
      {
          int HomersAge;
  
          void incrementHomersAge()
          {
              HomersAge++;
          }
      }
      int main() {
          ...
          CartoonNameSpace::HomersAge = 39;
          CartoonNameSpace::incrementHomersAge();
          cout << CartoonNameSpace::HomersAge << endl;
          ...
      }
  

new (C++ only)

• Used to allocate a new block of memory for the given type from the heap, and return a pointer to that block of memory. Allocating arrays can be done by providing the size of the array in square brackets.
  

  pointer = new type;
  pointer = new type( initializer );
  pointer = new type[size];

  • pointer is a pointer to the type that you want to allocate the memory for
  • type is the type of the item that is to be stored in the memory that is allocated
  • initializer is the optional information for the constructor
  • size is the size of the array to create

operator (C++ only)

• Used to specify that you are overloading an operator.
  

     return-type class-name::operator#(parameter-list)
      {
          ...
      }
  

  • return-type is the return type for the function
  • class-name is the name of the class that the operator is a part of. If it is not part of a class, this can be left out along with the ‘::‘.
  • # is the operator that is to be overloaded, such as ‘++’. You cannot overload the #, ##, ., :, .*, or ? tokens.
  • parameter-list is the list of parameters that the operator will take. For unary operators, parameter-list should be empty, and for binary operators, parameter-list should contain the operand on the right side of the operator (the operand on the left side is passed as this).
• There are special conventions for some operators, such as the unary ++ and — operators.
  • The unary ++ operator has both prefix (++object and postfix (object++) versions.

  •    return-type class-name::operator++()
        {
            ...
        }
    

    overloads the prefix version (the value returned is the value of the object after it is incremented, so this is also known as the pre-increment version because the increment takes place before the value is returned). There is no parameter specified because ++ is a unary operator.

  •    return-type class-name::operator++( int )
        {
            ...
        }
    

    overloads the postfix version (the value returned is the value of the object before it is incremented, so this is also known as the post-increment version because the increment takes place after the value is returned). The parameter int is not really a parameter (++ is still a unary operator) but is there soley to differentiate the prefix and postfix versions.

private (C++ only)

• Used within a class declaration to specify features of that class that can only be accessed by itself and its friends.
  

  class Date
  {
  public:
      void display();
  
  private:
      int day;
      int month;
      int year;
  }

• Used to inherit a base class privately, which causes all public and protected members of the base class to become private members of the derived class.
  

  class AlarmClock : private Clock
  {
  public:
      void display();
  
  }

protected (C++ only)

• Used within a class declaration to specify features of that class that are private to its own class, but can be inherited by a derived class.
  

  class Date
  {
  public:
      void display();
  protected:
      int day;
      int month;
      int year;
  }

• Used to inherit a base class, which causes all public and protected members of the base class to become protected members of the derived class.
  

  class AlarmClock : protected Clock
  {
  public:
      void display()
  }

public (C++ only)

• Used within a class declaration to specify features of that class that are accessable to everyone.
  

  class Date
  {
  public:
      void display();
  protected:
      int day;
      int month;
      int year;
  }

• Used to inherit a base class publically, which causes all public and protected members of the base class to become public and protected members of the derived class.
  

  class AlarmClock : public Clock
  {
  public:
      void display()
  }

register

• Used to reccommend that a varibale be placed into a processor register so that it is optimized for speed but the compiler is not obliged to do so. This keyword is rarely used anymore since compilers have become better than programmers at optimizing code.

reinterpret_cast (C++ only), seldom used

• Used to change one data type in a non-portable way. It is normally used to cast between incompatible pointer types.
  

  reinterpret_cast<target_type> (object);

return

• Used to cause the execution to jump from the current function back to the one that called it. An optional value can be returned but the function must specify the type that it will return.
  

  return;
  return 5;

short

• Used as a data type modifier for the int type to indicate that there may be less bytes then the type has available. This variable type is normally 16or 32bits (2 or 4bytes) long.
  

  short int i = 5;

signed

• Used to specify that the number type provided could potentially be negative, so it must be stored in a different format. This is the default representation that is chosen by most compilers if either signed or unsigned is not specified.
  

  signed int i = -12;

sizeof

• Used to return the size of the object (in bytes) that is passed to it.
  

  int i = 5;
  int size = sizeof( i );

static

• Used outside any function or class as a qualifier to a variable declaration makes the scope of the variable the file in which the variable is declared, and the extent is permanent (i.e., it is in the static segment).
  

  static int i;

• Used inside a function as a qualifier to a variable declaration makes the scope of the variable the function in which the variable is declared, and the extent is permanent (i.e., it is in the static segment).
  

  void foo()
  {
      static int i;
  }

• Used inside a class as a qualifier to a variable declaration makes the scope of the variable the class in which the variable is declared, and the extent is permanent (i.e., it is in the static segment).
  

  class bar
  {
      static int i;
  }

• Used outside any class as a qualifier to a function declaration makes the scope of the function the file in which the function is declared. As with all functions, the instructions for the function are in the code segment.
  

  static void foo()
  {
  }

• Used inside a class as a qualifier to a function (method) declaration makes the scope of the function the class in which the function is declared (as with all methods), and the instructions for the method are in the code segment (as for all functions). What is different is that a static method is invoked without requiring an object, using the qualifier syntax class::staticMethod( parameters ), although it can also be invoked on an object in the class in the usual way. Because no object is associated with a static method, only static member variables and other static member functions can be invoked by a static method.
  

  class bar
  {
      static void foo();
  }

  Note: A method in a class cannot be both “static” and “virtual”. The reason for this is that virtual functions have to know the object to which they apply (because of polymorphism) but static methods are not applied to an object.

static_cast (C++ only, seldom used)

• Used for a normal conversion between types. No runtime checking is performed.
  

  static_cast<target_type> (object);

struct

• Used to create a structure like a class, but the members are public by default instead of private. In C, structs can only contain data, cannot have inheritance and cannot have data with different visibilities.
  

  struct struct-name : inheritance-list
  {
          public-members-list;
      protected:
          protected-members-list;
      private:
          private-members-list;
  } object-list;

  • struct-name is the name of the struct that is being created.
  • inheritance-list is the optional list of structs inherited by the new struct.
  • public-members-list is the list of public members of the struct.
  • protected-members-list is the list of protected members of the struct.
  • private-members-list is the list of private members of the struct.
  • object-list is an optional list used to immediately instantiate 1 or more instances of the struct.

  struct Date
  {
      int day;
      int month;
      int year;
  }

switch

• Used to test an expression of an integer value against many constant integer values and is commonly used to replace large if()…else if()… statements. Break statements are required between each case statement, otherwise execution will “fall-through” to the next case statement. The default case is optional. If provided, it will match any case not explicitly covered by the preceding cases in the switch statement.
  

  char keystroke = getch();
  switch( keystroke )
  {
      case 'a':
      case 'b':
      case 'c':
      case 'd':
          KeyABCDPressed();
          break;
      case 'e':
          KeyEPressed();
          break;
      default:
          UnknownKeyPressed();
          break;
  }
  

template (C++ only)

• Used to create generic functions and can operate on data without knowing the nature of that data. They accomplish this by using a placeholder data-type for which many other data types can be substituted.
  

  template void genericSwap( X &a, X &b )
  {
      X tmp;
  
      tmp = a;
      a = b;
      b = tmp;
  }
  

this (C++ only)

• Used as a pointer to the current object. All member functions of a class have this pointer.
  

  this.print();

throw (C++ only)

• Used together with try and catch statements to create an exception handling system. Throw is used to generate an exception.
  

  try
  {
      cout << "Before throwing exception"<< endl;
      throw 42;
      cout << "Shouldn't ever see this"<< endl;
  }
  catch( int error )
  {
      cout << "Error: caught exception " << error << endl;
  }
  

true (C++ only)

• Used to represent the Boolean value true.
  

  bool b = true;

try (C++ only)

• Used to attempt to execute exception-generating code.
  

  try
  {
      cout << "Before throwing exception" << endl;
      throw 42;
      cout << "Shouldn't ever see this" << endl;
  }
  catch( int error )
  {
      cout << "Error: caught exception " << error << endl;
  }

typedef

• Used to create a new type from an existing type.
  

  typedef int seconds;

typeid (C++ only, seldom used)

• Used to get a reference to a type_info object that describes the object it was passed.
  

  typeid(object);

typename (C++ only)

• Used to describe an undefined type or in place of the class keyword in a template declaration.

union

Used to create multiple data fields that will occupy the same memory location.

union Data
{
    int i;
    char c;
};

unsigned

• Used to specify that the int or char provided can only be posative and can therefore contain a larger number since there is no need to worry about representation of negative numbers.
  

  signed int i = -12;

using (C++ only)

• Used to import a namespace into the current scope.
  

  using namespace std;

virtual (C++ only)

• Used to create virtual functions that can be overridden by derived functions.
  • A virtual function indicates that a function can be overridden in a subclass, and that the overridden function will actually be used.
  • When a base object pointer points to a derived object that contains a virual function, the decision about which version of that function to call is based on the type of object pointed to by the pointer, and this process happens at runtime.
  • A base object can point to different derived objects and have different versions of the virual function run.

  virtual void print();

• Used to create a pure virtual function which is a virtual function that must be overriden by some derived class.
  

  virtual void print() = 0;

• Note: A method in a class cannot be both “virtual” and “static”.

void

• Used to denote functions that return no value.
  

  void print()
  {
      cout << "printn";
  }
  

• Used to create generic variables which can point to any type of data.
  

  void *p = 5;
  

• Used to declare an empty parameter list.
  

  void print( void )
  {
      cout << "printn";
  }

volatile

• Used to inform the compiler that the variables value can change in unexpected ways (i.e. through an interrupt), which could conflict with optimizations that the compiler might perform, so therefore the compiler will not optimize these variables.
  

  volatile Date d;

wchar_t

• Used to declare a wide character variable. This variable type is normally 16 bits (2 bytes) long.
  

  wchar_t c = ‘c’;

while

• Used as a looping construct that will evaluate a list of statements as long as the condition is true. Note: if the condition starts off as false, the list of statements will never be executed. (You can use a do loop to guarantee that the list of statements will be executed at least once.)
  

  bool done = false;
  while( !done )
  {
      ProcessData();
      if( StopLooping() )
      {
          done = true;
      }
  }

Copyright (C) 2000-2005, The University of British Columbia

The first week of class if always pretty chill.  There’s no labs, no tutorials and no homework.  I only had class from 8am to 9am today and I was done.  Once school picks up, I’ll have a three hour lab on Mondays weekly.  I hope I can find time for all my commitments and succeed in all of them.  I also have a social life to attend to, so I’ll see how it goes.