C++26 reflection at compile-time -- Andreas Fertig

By Blog Staff | Sep 17, 2025 03:09 PM | Tags: None

In today's post, I like to talk about C++26 and one of the probably most impactful features that have been added to the working draft. While C++26 is still some months away from official completion, since the WG21 summer meeting in June we all now know what will be in C++26.

C++26 reflection at compile-time

by Andreas Fertig

From the article:

While the new standard will have plenty of great improvements the one that will most likely change a lot is reflection at compile-time! In Sofia we voted seven reflection papers into C++26:

• P1306R5 Expansion statements
• P2996R13 Reflection for C++26
• P3096R12: Function parameter reflection in reflection for C++26
• P3293R3: Splicing a base class subobject
• P3394R4: Annotations for reflection
• P3491R3: define_static_
• P3560R2: Error handling in reflection

The papers above should give you enough to read for your vacation. I'll leave that theoretical study up to you for now.

Let's talk practical

The main question is, what can you do with that new feature? Well, I'm not the first one who published their ideas.

Format your own type (Part 2) -- Sandor Dargo

By Blog Staff | Sep 15, 2025 03:06 PM | Tags: None

Previously, we discussed how to write our own formatter and finished with a relatively simple solution for printing a struct called ProgrammingLanguage. Today, we’ll take it to the next level.

Format your own type (Part 2)

by Sandor Dargo

From the article:

Add more options for semantic versioning

Let’s dream big. Instead of only handling major and minor versions (like Python 3.12), let’s aim to fully support semantic versioning.

Semantic versioning (SemVer) is a versioning scheme that conveys meaning about the underlying changes in a release. It typically consists of three parts: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.

We should be able to print all these correctly:

ProgrammingLanguage cpp{"C++", 20};
ProgrammingLanguage python312{"Python", 3, 12};
ProgrammingLanguage python31211{"Python", 3, 12, 11};


std::cout << std::format("{:%n%v} is fun", cpp) << '\n';  // C++20 is fun
std::cout << std::format("{:%n %v} is fun", python312) << '\n';  // Python 3.12 is fun
std::cout << std::format("{:%n %v} is fun", python31211) << '\n';  // Python 3.12.11 is fun

CppCon 2025 The Programmer CEO -- Greg Law

By Blog Staff | Sep 12, 2025 01:46 PM | Tags: None

Registration is now open for CppCon 2025! The conference starts on September 13 and will be held in person in Aurora, CO. To whet your appetite for this year’s conference, we’re posting some upcoming talks that you will be able to attend this year. Here’s another CppCon future talk we hope you will enjoy – and register today for CppCon 2025!

The Programmer CEO

Wednesday, September 17 16:45 - 17:45 MDT

by Greg Law

Summary of the talk:

Many programmers think about starting a company. It’s often not about getting rich so much as to pursue a vision for a computer program that is much bigger than one person could write alone. Like most programmers who start up, I had no formal training and little experience outside of software development. I was naively confident, and didn’t know what I didn’t know (it turned out that that was a LOT!)

The talk includes some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way, many of which were a complete surprise. I’ll cover getting investment, building the product, building a team, and getting and keeping customers. Little of this talk is directly about programming, but it is aimed at programmers who want to create code in order to create a business, or who want to create a business so that they can create the code they want.

Much of the content is also relevant for programmers who find themselves doing non-programming tasks, such as managing people or customer-facing roles, and anyone working at a start-up. Contains candid, warts-and-all war stories, and because it’s for programmers, comes with a no adverts and no business-talk BS guarantee.

Greg is co-founder and CEO at Undo. He is a programmer at heart, but likes to keep one foot in the software world and one in the business world. Greg finds it particularly rewarding to turn innovative software technology into a real business. Greg has over 25 years' experience in innovative start-up software companies.

CppCon 2025 Engineers Are Users Too: Case Study in Design Thinking for Infrastructure -- Grace Alwan

By Blog Staff | Sep 11, 2025 01:42 PM | Tags: None

Registration is now open for CppCon 2025! The conference starts on September 13 and will be held in person in Aurora, CO. To whet your appetite for this year’s conference, we’re posting some upcoming talks that you will be able to attend this year. Here’s another CppCon future talk we hope you will enjoy – and register today for CppCon 2025!

Engineers Are Users Too: A Case Study in Design Thinking for Infrastructure

Tuesday, September 16 15:15 - 16:15 MDT

by Grace Alwan

Summary of the talk:

Bringing together strong engineering skills with a foundation in UX Design can open unexpected doors—especially in fields like infrastructure, where there are few engineers trained in design. As a software engineer on an infrastructure team at a fintech company, I work on low-level systems that power how engineers manage compute at scale. But it’s my background in UX and human-computer interaction that’s made me an invaluable asset. By applying design thinking to infrastructure – through prototyping, user interviews, and iteration – I transformed a complex internal workflow and quickly became a subject matter expert.

This talk will walk you through that journey and give you the tools to be a design trailblazer in your own career. You'll leave with practical techniques for integrating empathy and user-centric thinking into deeply technical work—and insights on how expanding your skillset can accelerate your growth as a C++ or systems engineer.

Grace Alwan graduated from Stanford University in 2023, where she got her BS and MS in Computer Science specializing in Human-Computer Interaction. She is now a software engineer in the Technology Infrastructure org at Bloomberg, where she works on cluster and host management.

2025-09 Mailing Available

By Administrator | Sep 11, 2025 11:08 AM | Tags: None

The 2025-09 mailing of new standards papers is now available.

Planning the next Meeting C++ job fairs

By Meeting C++ | Sep 11, 2025 09:00 AM | Tags: meetingcpp jobs events community

Meeting C++ is hosting a job fair in October online and planning a job fair in November in Berlin at Meeting C++ 2025!

Planning the next Meeting C++ job fairs

by Jens Weller

From the article:

The next Meeting C++ online job fair is planned for October 14th & 15th, also I'd like to talk about the onsite job fair plans for Meeting C++ 2025!

If you have open positions you should advertise them in the bi-weekly Meeting C++ Jobs Newsletter, which now also powers the candidate listing of Meeting C++ with 80+ international candidates at the moment.

 

Format your own type (Part 1) -- Sandor Dargo

By Blog Staff | Sep 10, 2025 08:01 PM | Tags: None

I recently published two posts about how C++26 improves std::format and the related facilities. (If you missed them, here are Part 1 and Part 2). Now it’s time to explore how you can format your own types using std::format.

Format your own type (Part 1)

by Sandor Dargo

From the article:

std::format was introduced in C++20 and is based on Victor Zverovich’s <fmt> library, which in turn was inspired by Python’s string formatting capabilities.

Let’s skip the fancy formatting options and simply see how to interpolate values using std::format.

#include <format>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main() {
    std::string language{"C++"};
    int version{20};
    std::cout << std::format("{}{} is fun", language, version) << '\n';
}

/*
C++20 is fun
*/

That was easy.

Now imagine you want to print your own type. That won’t work by default.

CppCon 2025 Changing /std:c++14 to /std:c++20 - How Hard Could It Be? -- Keith Stockdale

By Blog Staff | Sep 10, 2025 01:40 PM | Tags: None

Registration is now open for CppCon 2025! The conference starts on September 13 and will be held in person in Aurora, CO. To whet your appetite for this year’s conference, we’re posting some upcoming talks that you will be able to attend this year. Here’s another CppCon future talk we hope you will enjoy – and register today for CppCon 2025!

Changing /std:c++14 to /std:c++20 - How Hard Could It Be?

Monday, September 15 15:15 - 16:15 MDT

by Keith Stockdale

Summary of the talk:

Rare put in huge amounts of work to bring Sea of Thieves to PlayStation 5 and to upgrade from the old XDK and UWP platforms to the new GDK platform. In this session, Rare will discuss why they made the decision to take this opportunity to also upgrade from C++14 to C++20. It shouldn’t be much harder than changing a 14 to a 20, right? How hard could it be?

Rare will discuss all the work that was involved in upgrading their language standard and share some anecdotes of some of the challenges that were met along the way. They will go through the benefits that they have felt from this upgrade along with some plans for continuing this work in the future.

Keith Stockdale is a Northern Irish senior software engineer who has been working on the Engine and Rendering teams at Rare Ltd for the last 8 years working on Sea of Thieves. At Rare, Keith's main areas of focus are involved in maintaining and creating general purpose simulations that run on the GPU. For example, he is the owner of the GPU particle system that drives the visual effects in Sea of Thieves. Keith is enthusiastic about promoting writing good quality code, whether it is running on the CPU on the GPU. He is driven towards ensuring that the code-bases he works in are enjoyable to work in for all current and future developers on his team.

C++ Day 2025

By Marco Arena | Sep 10, 2025 12:44 AM | Tags: community

A full day of C++ in Pavia (Italy) on October 25:

C++ Day 2025

An event organized by the Italian C++ Community and SEA Vision.

Sponsors: SEA Vision, ELT, Sigeo (and others in the pipeline).

 

All talks will be in English.

 

In a nutshell

Launched in 2016, C++ Day is a community-driven event format by the Italian C++ Community, co-organized with external partners like companies and universities.

The C++ Day 2025 will be held in person on October 25 in Pavia, a joint effort between the Italian C++ Community and SEA Vision, who is also generously hosting the event at their venue.

The event is free to attend, runs for an entire day, and includes coffee breaks and lunch.

 

Who should attend the C++ Day 2025?

This event is made by passionate C++ professionals for C++ professionals, companies, students and enthusiasts.

 

What can I find at the C++ Day 2025?

• 6 tech talks
• 2+ hours of networking
• Some Sponsors on site
• 2 coffee breaks and lunch included
• Cozy atmosphere, games and gadgets

You can refer to the detailed program for more information.

 

When does the C++ Day 2025 take place?

The event will be held on October 25, 2025 at SEA Vision headquarters, in Pavia.

Open doors at 8.30 AM. The event starts at 9.15 AM and will last for a full day.

 

Who supports this event?

Sponsors: SEA Vision, ELT, Sigeo (and others in the pipeline).

 

Do I need to register?

The C++ Day 2025 is free, but you must register to facilitate the organization of the event. You can register here.

CppCon 2025 Clean code! Horrible performance? -- Sandor Dargo

By Blog Staff | Sep 9, 2025 01:35 PM | Tags: None

Registration is now open for CppCon 2025! The conference starts on September 13 and will be held in person in Aurora, CO. To whet your appetite for this year’s conference, we’re posting some upcoming talks that you will be able to attend this year. Here’s another CppCon future talk we hope you will enjoy – and register today for CppCon 2025!

Clean code! Horrible performance?

Friday, September 18 14:45 - 15:45 MDT

by Sandor Dargo

Summary of the talk:

Clean code promises readability, maintainability, and clarity. But is it possible that the pursuit of clean code comes at a catastrophic cost to performance? Some sceptics argue that adhering to clean code practices means sacrificing years - if not decades - of hardware advancements. Is clean code really that expensive? Let’s explore the complex relationship between clean code and software performance. In this talk, we’ll delve into what makes software performant. We’ll demystify the effects of clean code on performance and discover what real bottlenecks are that you’ll encounter while working on enterprise software.

But what is performance, really? While many immediately think of raw runtime speed, the landscape is far more intricate. We’ll explore different facets of performance, including compile-time efficiency, memory usage, and the performance of developers themselves. However, our primary focus will be on runtime performance.

The pivotal question we aim to answer is whether sheer runtime performance always reigns supreme. Can you truly achieve a 10x scale-up by eliminating dynamic polymorphism and virtual function calls? The very idea might seem absurd, but, believe it or not, in some specialized niches, that’s part of the solution. Still, the vast majority of us don’t work in those niches. We face different challenges.

We’ll navigate through real-life examples where awful algorithms hardly mattered, where prudent database and network management became the true path to scalability. I don’t claim that writing code that’s easy to understand and modify always yields optimal performance. Yet, more often than not, performance bottlenecks and the road to performant software lie elsewhere.

Sandor is a passionate software developer focusing on reducing the maintenance costs by developing, applying and enforcing clean code standards. His other core activity is knowledge sharing both oral and written, within and outside of his employer. When not reading or writing, he spends most of his free time with his two children and his wife baking at home or travelling to new places.