Raspberry Pi Linux User Mode GPIO in C++ - Part 1

I started experimenting with Raspberry Pi GPIO using Python[1][2]. Then the original Gertboard[3] kit was released so I ordered and built one which enabled me to play with BCM2835 peripheral IO beyond basic GPIO. At the time the Gertboard had test and example C code available[4] that, as with the Python case, I felt could be expressed more cleanly. I thought it would be interesting to see what advantages C++, hopefully C++11, features and idioms might provide.