A new WG21 paper is available. A copy is linked below, and the paper will also appear in the next normal WG21 mailing. If you are not a committee member, please use the comments section below or the std-proposals forum for public discussion.

Document number: N3721

Date: 2013-08-30

Improvements to std::future and Related APIs

by Niklas Gustafsson, Artur Laksberg, Herb Sutter, Sana Mithani

Excerpt:

This proposal is an evolution of the functionality of std::future/std::shared_future. It details additions which can enable wait free compositions of asynchronous operations.

This document supersedes N3634: the title has been changed, and the proposed changes have been modified to be expressed as edits to the C++ Draft Standard.

New in this version: implicit unwrapping (one level) of future<future<R>> to future<R> in then().

... C++ suffers an evident deficit of asynchronous operations compared to other languages, thereby hindering programmer productivity. JavaScript on Windows 8 has promises (then, join and any), .NET has the Task Parallel Library (ContinueWith, WhenAll, WhenAny), C#/VB has the await keyword (asynchronous continuations), and F# has asynchronous workflows. When compared to these languages, C++ is less productive for writing I/O-intensive applications and system software. In particular writing highly scalable services becomes significantly more difficult. ...