Yuckie Classes

In apcs we use a class called bigint.h which is essentially a string of chars that can be used like an integer (sort of). Its main problem is that it is EXTREMELY SLOW, and I think i can make a much more fast, effecient version. I think part of this is because it uses apvectors instead of built-in c arrays. I have a good basic understanding of classes (I have no problem creating simple ones), but it would make my life much easier if I knew how to use the operators (such as being able to say "instanceOfMyClass*=2; or instanceOfMyClass=8*7; and the !=, == operators...). How do I go about doing that (I see the syntax in bigint.h/cpp but since I havent seen it before I do not get a good understanding of it. Can anyone explain this to me or give me a link to someplace that can (I didn't see it on the tuts here).

It's called "operator overloading" and is quite a big topic. Search google for this term.