What are the differences between struct and class in C

Question

I now want to understand the distinctions between a C++ class and struct.

Please go through the technical distinctions and the justifications for selecting one over the other in OO design.

I'll start with a clear distinction:

A struct's members are public by default if you don't specify public: or private:, but a class's members are private by default.

In the tucked-away areas of the C++ standard, I'm sure there are other variances.

Answer 1

You overlook the complex second distinction between classes and structs.

According to the specification (11.2.2 for C++98 through C++11):

When a derived class is declared as a struct (without an access-specifier), public is presumed, whereas when a class is specified as a class, private is assumed.

And just to be thorough, (11.2) defines the more well-known distinction between class and struct as follows:

By default, members of a class specified with the term class are private.

The default access level for members of a class declared with the keywords struct or union is public.

Another distinction is that the keyword class can be used to declare template arguments, whereas the keyword struct cannot.