Some sessions from the recent using std::cpp are now online.

Reflecting C++

by Axel Naumann

About the session:

What do you use to not get lost in a new city? A map! Some of today's C++ code is as complex as a metropolis, but mapping it still relies on tools to generate descriptions. Wouldn't it be nice to query C++ code from within C++? To answer questions like "which members do you have?" and "what is your type"? That's what reflection is about. This presentation will introduce the magic of the meta land, the features that open up with reflection in your hand.

In your hand? Yes: a first Reflection TS is scheduled to be published in 2019. In parallel the C++ committee is investing a lot of work in making the interfaces nicer, by making it stdlib's first constexpr library. As one of the Reflection TS authors, I will give you a quick tour of where we are and where it is we are going - which is relevant for any library that wants to live in compile-time space.

Axel Naumann (CERN) graduated as an experimental high energy / particle physicist. After a couple of years in The Netherlands and the US, he is now working at CERN, where he is leading the ROOT project https://root.cern, used by tens of thousands of physicists (and others) with varying coding expertise, to analyze about 1 exabytes of serialized C++ data - all in C++, with dynamic Python bindings. Since 2011, Axel is CERN's representative at the ISO C++ committee. Examples of past presentations include talks at 33C3, ACCU and a Google Tech Talk, as well as lectures and trainings.