Take the 2-minute tour ×  To make my question more clear, I'd
like to mention the reason for the question:-    1. I want to
know if my program will be OS-dependent. For example, I thought
C++ was OS-independent; Now I know if I program in Visual C++,
my programs will be Windows dependent. So, I would like to know
how to make sure my program isn't OS-dependent.    2. I want to
know what how the thing works in general to be comfortable when
programming. (It helps to know what happens when you include a
header file.)    3. Maybe I can optimize my programs with just
knowing how the thing works, without having to read a book on
optimization and consume time on optimization rather than
development.  I know there are books on how compilers work. But
I'm not interested in this, I'm only interested in knowing the
phases programs go through to get a fully working program for
the reasons I've previously mentioned. Maybe there are core
phases and optional/IDE dependent phases; if this is true, I
would like to know both.