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While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2017 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Class Template Argument Deduction: A New Abstraction

by Zhihao Yuan

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

C++17 is often quoted as “just a better C++14”, suggesting that nothing is new, nothing is changing the way we program. This talk presents class template argument deduction as a counterexample, a hidden gem in the new standard.

Saves typing? A replacement for the `make` functions? If that’s your frame, then you should come to this talk. The true power of class template argument deduction is underestimated. It’s a new point of abstraction but requiring creativity, insights, and understanding about the language details to manage.

This talk will start by introducing all matters about this feature to build up sufficient background knowledge, followed by teaching how to write deduction guides by examples, and finally explain how to build abstractions using the whole feature in a top-down approach, with patterns categorized.