Quick Q: Does constexpr guarantee compile-time evaluation? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Dec 31, 2013 10:12 AM | Tags: intermediate

Quick A: constexpr guarantees compile-time evaluation is possible if operating on a compile-time value, and that compile-time evaluation will happen if a compile-time result is needed.

From SO, the originally worded question:

Can C++ constexpr function actually accept non-constant expression as argument?

I have defined a constexpr function as following:

constexpr int foo(int i)
{
    return i*2;
}

And this is what in the main function:

int main()
{
    int i=2;
    cout<<foo(i)<<endl;
    int arr[foo(i)];
    for(int j=0;j<foo(i);j++)
        arr[j]=j;
    for(int j=0;j<foo(i);j++)
        cout<<arr[j]<<" ";
    cout<<endl;
    return 0;
}

The program was compiled under OS X 10.8 with command clang++. I was surprised that the compiler did not produce any error message about foo(i) not being a constant expression, and the compiled program actually worked fine. Why?

Quick Q: How do I use conditional noexcept? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Dec 31, 2013 02:57 AM | Tags: intermediate

The question also has a lemon-zest touch of "templates in headers" but the basic noexcept question is still the same:

Use of the noexcept specifier in function declaration and definition?

Consider the following function:

// Declaration in the .h file
class MyClass
{
    template <class T> void function(T&& x) const;
};

// Definition in the .cpp file
template <class T> void MyClass::function(T&& x) const;

I want to make this function noexcept if the type T is nothrow constructible.

How to do that? (I mean what is the syntax ?)

Quick Q: Why would I use =default? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Dec 30, 2013 12:55 PM | Tags: basics

Quick A: Not just for convenience, but sometimes it matters for PODness or optimal performance.

From SO:

The new keyword =default in C++11

I don't understand why would I ever do this:

struct S {
    int a;
    S(int aa) : a(aa) {}
    S() = default;
};

Why not just say:

S() {} // instead of S() = default;

why bring in a new keyword for that?

Quick Q: Does memory layout (including alignment) matter for performance? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Dec 30, 2013 11:50 AM | Tags: intermediate

Quick A: Oh, yeah.

See the nice three-paragaph "highlights" answer to the question:

Does alignment really matter for performance in C++11?

There is an advice in Stroustrup's book to order the members in a struct beginning from the biggest to the smallest. But I wonder if someone has made measurements to actually see if this makes any difference, and if it is worth it to think about when writing code.

A shared view of C++ (or, Around the C++ world in 180 pages)

By Bjarne Stroustrup | Dec 27, 2013 03:40 AM | Tags: intermediate c++11 basics

[Note: There has long been “one short and reasonably complete book you can assume everyone has read” for C -- K&R 2nd Edition (274 pages). But what is the “one short and reasonably complete book you can assume everyone has read” for C++? Does a single short one even exist, and is it possible for one to exist? This post by Bjarne Stroustrup addresses that important question, with what we feel is the year's most important book on C++ -- more important than even the C++11-updated The C++ Programming Language, 4th Ed., also by Stroustrup.

The "(or, Around the C++ world in 180 pages)" alternate title for this blog post is our editorial suggestion, with apologies to both Stroustrup and Jules Verne. We believe this is quite appropriate for Stroustrup's year-end gift to the C++ community. Enjoy. --Ed.]

For a graduate course in software design, I needed a few introductory lectures to “refresh” my students’ understanding of C++. For The C++ Programming Language (Fourth Edition), I wrote introductory chapters (about 80 pages) to give the reader an overview of C++ before diving into the details. At the suggestion of Herb Sutter, I posted drafts of those four Tour of C++ chapters on isocpp.org, and at the suggestion of my Addison Wesley editor, Peter Gordon, I expanded these chapters to provide a comprehensive overview of and introduction to C++ (for people who are already programmers, not complete novices):

A Tour of C++

by Bjarne Stroustrup

Addison Wesley, ISBN 978-0321958310, 2013

In 180 pages, it covers the major C++11 features and techniques plus most of the standard library. 180 pages is something most programmers can find the time to read. The tour (Tour++) benefited greatly from use and comments from many readers.

It gradually dawned on me that I just might have produced a solution to a decades-old problem for C++:

What is the basic knowledge that we should be able to assume from a competent C++ programmer?

Competent C programmers can be assumed to know roughly what is covered by K&R. Conversely, if they don’t -- or haven’t even heard of K&R -- it is a good guess that they can’t be relied on to contribute viable C code. I find that I cannot make an equivalent statement about C++ programmers. Once upon a time, knowing TC++PL (1st edition) served as a shared base, but that was a long time ago and C++ has improved immensely since 1985. These days, there are functioning C++ programmers who have learned all they know from the Qt documentation, from boost.org, from Scott Meyers’ many books, from some of my books and papers, from some of Herb Sutter’s books, etc., but don’t know more than one of these sources. Their ideas of what C++ is are disjoint and incompatible. Many more programmers appear to base their understanding of C++ on some ancient, outdated, and usually poor college textbook plus what they learn from on-line documentation and following some C++ Q&A site. But you don’t become a good C++ programmer just by knowing only the C++ syntax and a multitude of library classes and functions. Similarly, being able to answer tricky “interview-style” questions about the ISO standard doesn’t make you a good C++ Programmer.

We -- the huge and diverse C++ communities -- do not share a body of basic understanding. This is bad; very bad! We don’t have a shared view of what good C++ code is and we don’t communicate effectively. I find -- from web posting, from academic papers, from my email, and more -- that huge chunks of the last 20 years of progress in design technique, programming technique, and language support remain unknown and unused by many “C++ programmers.” What a waste! More specifically, what a waste of energy as programmers suffer from outdated parochial views in their current work today! Conversely, what an opportunity for improvement!

Many have tried to address parts of this problem. The sources I mentioned above are not bad, but they are not shared and few are comprehensive. I can and do recommend them often. Further, I recommend the many superb talks from the “Going Native” 2012 and 2013 conferences (freely available on the Web) as well as talks recorded at Google, ACCU, and others. It is not volume of material we lack. On the contrary, it is quite easy to drown in information about C++. Few practicing programmers can keep up with all the quality information being produced. Worse, the quality information is often drowned by the constant deluge of poor, outdated, and often wrong information provided on the web (and elsewhere).

As the risk of being seen as a blatant self-promoter, I would like to recommend A Tour of C++. [We wholeheartedly support this recommendation. --Ed.] For a technical book, it is a quick read, and it is not a waste of time: I have never met a programmer of any experience level who didn’t learn something from reading it. If everyone read it, the C++ community would again -- after something like 25 years -- have a common conceptual framework and vocabulary. Read it! You might even like it.

Thoughts on C++'s future and the pointer

By Meeting C++ | Dec 26, 2013 01:53 PM | Tags: intermediate c++14 c++11 boost basics

I've written down some thoughts on the future of C++ and the pointer:

C++ future and the pointer

From the Article:

The last weeks after Meeting C++ 2013 I've been thinking a lot about C++, and also a little bit about pointers. While C++11 brought only little changes for pointers (nullptr f.e.), the semantics and usage of pointers in C++ has changed over the last years.

Quick Q: What is this "C++ memory model" you speak of? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Dec 23, 2013 07:44 AM | Tags: advanced

Quick A: First read Stroustrup's FAQ answer, before reading the SO answers which are also illuminating. For a deep answer and to really grok this topic, check out Sutter's slides from his three-hour deep-dive talk.

A 2011-vintage "new classic" from SO:

C++11 introduced a standardized memory model. What does it mean? And how is it going to affect C++ programming?

... So, what I basically want to know is, C++ programmers used to develop multi-threaded applications even before, so how does it matter if its POSIX threads, or Windows threads, or C++11 threads? What are the benefits? I want to understand the low-level details.

I also get this feeling that the C++11 memory model is somehow related to C++11 multi-threading support, as I often see these two together. If it is, how exactly? Why should they be related?

As I don't know how internals of multi-threading works, and what memory model means in general, please help me understand these concepts.

Dive into C++11 (#3)—Automatic lifetime, pointers, dynamic allocation

By Vittorio Romeo | Dec 19, 2013 01:36 PM | Tags: intermediate

[Note: Automatic lifetime is indeed the right default -- correct and efficient. When you need to use the heap, however, note that you should now use unique_ptr (or if necessary shared_ptr via make_shared) instead of explicit new and delete. -- Ed.]

Hello again, I’m Vittorio Romeo, a computer science student, hobbyist game developer and C++ enthusiast.

I’ve uploaded the third episode of “Dive into C++11” on my YouTube channel.

In this episode we'll take a break from game development to delve into C and C++'s memory and lifetime management.

We'll talk about automatic variable lifetime, pointers in general and dynamic memory allocation.

The intended audience for this tutorial/screencast are people who have some experience with C++ in general, and who watched the previous episodes. This episode may be very interesting for those with experience with C++ who want to learn more about variable lifetime and memory management.

I greatly appreciate comments and criticism, and ideas for future videos/tutorials.

Feel free to fork/analyze the source code at: https://github.com/SuperV1234/Tutorials

You can find the previous episodes here:

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Playlist

Quick Q: Should I use unique_lock or lock_guard? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Dec 17, 2013 11:01 AM | Tags: basics

Quick A: Use lock_guard by default especially in local scopes, and unique_lock if you need its extra features.

std::unique_lock<std::mutex> or std::lock_guard<std::mutex>?

[...] What is the difference between the two and which one should I use in which use case ?

Data Locality -- Bob Nystrom

By Blog Staff | Dec 17, 2013 03:10 AM | Tags: intermediate

A nice refresher on data locality, and coding techniques to improve it for substantial performance gains.

Data Locality

by Bob Nystrom

From the article:

Sure, we can process data faster than ever, but we can’t get that data faster. ...

When I started working on this chapter, I spent some time putting together little game-like programs that would trigger best case and worst case cache usage. I wanted benchmarks that would thrash the cache so I could see first-hand how much bloodshed it causes.

When I got some stuff working, I was surprised. I knew it was a big deal, but there’s nothing quite like seeing it with your own eyes. I wrote two programs that did the exact same computation. The only difference was how many cache misses they caused. The slow one was fifty times slower than the other.