SymbolicC++ uses C++ and object-oriented programming to develop a computer algebra system. Object-oriented programming is an approach to software design that is based on classes rather than procedures. This approach maximizes modularity and information hiding. Object-oriented design provides many advantages. For example, it combines both the data and the functions that operate on that data into a single unit. Such a unit (abstract data type) is called a class.
We use C++ as our object-oriented programming language for the following reasons: C++ allows the introduction of abstract data types. Thus we can introduce the data types used in the computer algebra system as abstract data types. The language C++ supports the central concepts of object-oriented programming: encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism (including dynamic binding) and operator overloading. It has good support for dynamic memory management and supports both, procedural and object-oriented programming. A less abstract form of polymorphism is provided via template support. We overload the operators
