VC++ 2012 Desktop Express (free)

By Blog Staff | Sep 12, 2012 11:42 AM | Tags: None

Today Microsoft released another free Express version of Visual C++ 2012. In addition to the free Express Visual C++ compiler for building tablet applications, Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop directly supports traditional Windows and command-line applications in C++.

This a great free C++ compiler on Windows for everything from hobby development to using and contributing to open source projects. Besides additional C++11 standards conformance with range-for, override and final on the language side (with more to come in the coming months; watch this space) and a complete C++11 standard library implementation, the free compiler also includes unit testing framework for C++, code analysis for C++ (try /analyze today if you haven't already, as John Carmack says so well), C++ AMP for GPGPU programming, and much more.

See also the longer announcement here.

StackOverflow C++: How to measure C++ performance

By Blog Staff | Sep 10, 2012 12:37 PM | Tags: intermediate

Stackoverflow [c++] question of the day:

Resources for understanding C++ performance?

One interesting followup:

The Performance TR is freely available via the WG21 site. Quick search, top hits including PDF, HTML, and some announcements at the time: bing.com/search?q=C%2B%2B+performance+TR .

Continue reading...

How to Write a CAS Loop Using std::atomics -- Herb Sutter

By Blog Staff | Aug 31, 2012 05:44 PM | Tags: advanced

Just posted on Sutter's Mill, "Reader Q&A: How to write a CAS loop using std::atomics." From the post:

A colleague asked:

How should one write the following “conditional interlocked” function in the new C++ atomic<> style?

[...]

The short answer is:

T old = a;
while( old >= 0 && !a.compare_exchange_weak( old, old+val ) )
    { }

For the longer answer, continue reading...