An Overview of the New C++ (C++11)

Scott Meyers

Specification of the new version of C++ (“C++11”) is finally complete, and many compilers already offer a wealth of features from the revised language. And such features! auto-declared variables reduce typing drudgery and syntactic noise; Unicode, threading support, and alignment control address important functionality gaps; and rvalue references and variadic templates facilitate the creation of more efficient, more flexible libraries. The standard library gains resource-managing smart pointers, new containers, additional algorithms, support for regular expressions, and more. Altogether, C++11 offers much more than “old” C++. This intensively technical seminar introduces the most important new features in C++11 and explains how to get the most out of them.

Course Highlights

Participants will gain:

• Knowledge of the most important C++11 features and how they help produce better programs.
• Insights into how new features solve important problems.
• Understanding of which features are useful primarily to library writers, which to class authors, and which to virtually all C++ developers.
• Availability information regarding which features are available on which platforms.

Who Should Attend

Designers and developers who are using, considering using, or wish to know about the expanded capabilities of C++11. Attendees should be experienced with C++ and comfortable with its primary features (e.g., classes, templates, inheritance, STL, etc.). Familiarity with threading concepts (e.g., threads and mutexes) is helpful, but is not essential.

Format

Lecture and question/answer. There are no hands-on exercises, but participants are welcome – encouraged! – to bring computers to experiment with the material as it is presented.

Length

Three full days (six to seven lecture hours per day).

Detailed Topic Outline

The History and Vocabulary of C++ Evolution

Sample Program: C++98 vs. C++11

Features for Everybody:

• auto for Type Declarations
• Range-Based for Loops
• “>>” as Nested Template Closer
• nullptr
• Enhanced enums
• Unicode characters and strings
• Raw string literals
• Uniform initialization syntax
• Initializer lists
• Lambda Expressions
• Template Aliases
• Threading Support
• New Container Features
• Smart Pointers (shared_ptr, weak_ptr, unique_ptr)
• Hash Tables
• Singly-Linked Lists
• Fixed-Size Arrays
• Tuples
• Regular Expressions
• Generalized Functors(function)
• Generalized Binder (bind)
• New Algorithms
• Other New Library Functionality

Features Primarily for Class Authors: ◦Move Support, Rvalue References, and Perfect Forwarding

• default Member Functions
• delete Functions
• Default Member Initialization
• Delegating Constructors
• Inheriting Constructors

Features Primarily for Library Authors: ◦Static Assertions

• explicit Conversion Functions
• Variadic Templates
• decltype
• Alignment control (i.e., alignof, alignas, etc.)

Yet More Features (Overview)

Removed and Deprecated Features (Overview)

Sources for Further Information