Home »

What is the Current Time Around the World? -- Bartlomiej Filipek

By Blog Staff | Nov 28, 2024 12:46 PM | Tags: None

2024-11-21_12-48-43.pngIn this blog post, we will explore handling dates using std::chrono, including time zones. We’ll utilize the latest features of the library to retrieve the current time across various time zones, taking into account daylight saving time changes as well. Additionally, we will incorporate new capabilities introduced in C++23, such as enhanced printing functions and more.

What is the Current Time Around the World? Utilizing std::chrono with Time Zones in C++23

by Bartlomiej Filipek

From the article:

Let’s start with the following code that prints the current date and time:

#include <chrono>
#include <print>

int main() {
    auto now = std::chrono::system_clock::now();
    std::print("now is {}", now);
}

You can run it through Compiler Explorer

In my session, I’m getting the following results:

Now is 2024-11-01 11:44:06.374573703

Having Fun with Modern C++ -- Daniel Lemire

By Blog Staff | Nov 25, 2024 12:40 PM | Tags: None

Jb7DBcxe_400x400.jpgRecent versions of the C++ language (C++20 and C++23) may allow you to change drastically how you program in C++. I want to provide some fun examples.

Having Fun with Modern C++

by Daniel Lemire

From the article:

Thanks to the integration of the features from the popular fmt library, it is much easier to format strings elegantly in C++. In turn the fmt library was inspired by the work done in languages like Python.

Suppose that you have a vector of integers and you want to print its content:

std::vector<int> v = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
std::println("{}", v);

Suppose you want it to be centered in a line of 40 characters, with underscore characters around it:

std::vector<int> v = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
std::println("{:_^40}", v);
// ____________[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]_____________

CopperSpice: std::launder

By Ansel Sermersheim | Nov 25, 2024 11:26 AM | Tags: None

New video on the CopperSpice YouTube Channel:

std::launder

by Barbara Geller and Ansel Sermersheim

About the video:

Our recent C++ video started a lively conversation. We showed a use case for std::launder which caught several developers off guard. A new compiler setting was enabled which exposed a problem in our existing code. Please watch the full video to find out what we learned.

Take a look and remember to subscribe.

Trip Report: Meeting C++ 2024 -- Sandor Dargo

By Blog Staff | Nov 21, 2024 12:29 AM | Tags: None

SANDOR_DARGO_ROUND.JPGLast week, I got the chance to go to Berlin and participate in the 10th edition of Meeting C++ which is as far as I know the biggest C++ conference in Europe. Considering both the online and onsite participants, there were about 500 of us, eager to learn more mostly but not only about C++.

Trip Report: Meeting C++ 2024

by Sandor Dargo

From the article:

The conference was held in the East side of Berlin, in the Vienna House by Wyndham Andel’s Berlin Hotel offering some cool views of the city from its higher floors, especially from its sky bar. Not that we had a lot of time wandering in Berlin, the schedule was quite packed. Although the program only started around 9-10 AM depending on the day, the first two days the official program didn’t end before 10 PM.

Given the bit cold and cloudy weather, I realized that Berlin in November is really perfect for a conference. People will not be tempted to escape the venue for long walks outside. It just feels better to be inside.

C++ Compile-Time Programming -- Wu Yongwei

By Blog Staff | Nov 14, 2024 11:19 AM | Tags: None

logo.pngProgramming at compile time has been possible in C++ for a long time. Wu Yongwei considers its past, present and future.

Compile-time programming is a key feature of C++. It enables writing high-performance code often unattainable in other languages. This article explores its past, present, and future applications, highlighting the diverse possibilities in C++. We’ll briefly cover template metaprogramming, constexpr, variadic templates, static reflection, and more.

C++ Compile-Time Programming

by Wu Yongwei

From the article:

Compile-time programming is vastly different from run-time programming. The code runs during compilation, but the results can be used at run time.

Some believe compile-time programming is merely a trick, unused in real-world engineering. To them, I ask: do you use the C++ Standard Library? The mainstream implementations rely heavily on various programming techniques, including compile-time programming.

‘I don’t write the standard library’ – this might be a possible response. But consider this: the standard library is just one tool, a standard weapon. Is it enough to use only standard tools? That’s the real question.

The abundance of excellent open-source libraries suggests otherwise. A skilled programmer crafts tools for themselves and their team. If your work feels tedious, perhaps it’s time to build a bulldozer to tackle problems.

Compile-time programming offers a way to build such tools.

if constexpr requires requires { requires } -- Jonathan Müller

By Blog Staff | Nov 11, 2024 11:10 AM | Tags: None

thinkcelllogo.pngProbably the two most useful features added to C++20 are requires and requires. They make it so much easier to control overload resolution, and when combined with if constexpr in C++17, they allow basic reflection-based optimizations in templates. While requires requires has gotten a lot of (negative?!) press for controlling overload resolution, its cousin requires { requires } is a bit overlooked.

if constexpr requires requires { requires }

by Jonathan Müller

From the article:

C++20 added requires, a way to enable or disable a function overload based on some compile-time condition. For example, consider a facility for producing debug output of types for error reporting:
thinkcellconst.png

The two overloads with the requires clause are only enabled for integers or floating point types, respectively, and are not considered otherwise. Additionally, overload resolution is smart: It knows that we want the overload with the most specific requirements, and it will only pick the first function when no other overload matches. This is also where concept comes in: A concept is simply a way to name a group of requirements that affects the search for more specific requirements. The technical term for that is subsumption. Because creating named requirements with concept also comes with additional syntax sugar, you don't need requires—so this blog post is gonna ignore concept. In general, if you would use a concept in only one place, it is too early to introduce it.

C++ programmer's guide to undefined behavior: part 9 of 11

By Andrey Karpov | Nov 11, 2024 10:38 AM | Tags: undefined behavior static inline reserved names odr null pointer dereferencing nrvo

Your attention is invited to the ninth part of an e-book on undefined behavior. This is not a textbook, as it's intended for those who are already familiar with C++ programming. It's a kind of C++ programmer's guide to undefined behavior and to its most secret and exotic corners. The book was written by Dmitry Sviridkin and edited by Andrey Karpov.

C++ programmer's guide to undefined behavior: part 9 of 11

by Dmitry Sviridkin

From the article:

And you could write it only in C++. In C, however, this mess has been forbidden (see 6.5.3.2, note 104). Also, you can't use the dereference operator on invalid and null pointers anywhere in C. Meanwhile, C++ has its own, special way of doing things. These weird examples were built in constexpr context (let me remind you that UB is forbidden there, and the compiler checks for it).

Implementing Trivial Relocation in Library -- Barry Revzin

By Blog Staff | Nov 6, 2024 11:05 AM | Tags: None

TPWGDVRj_400x400.jpgOne of the reasons that I’m excited for Reflection in C++ is that it can permit you to implement, as a library, many things that previously required language features. In this post, I’m going to walk through implementing P2786R8 (“Trivial Relocatability For C++26”).

Implementing Trivial Relocation in Library

by Barry Revzin

From the article:

The goal here is not to say that the design is right or wrong (although the syntax certainly is suspect), but rather to show the kinds of things that reflection can solve.

We’ll just go straight to the wording and translate it into code as we go:

Trivially Relocatable Types

Scalar types, trivially relocatable class types (11.2 [class.prop]), arrays of such types, and cv-qualified versions of these types are collectively called trivially relocatable types.

This sure sounds like a type trait! Except in the world of reflection, those are just functions. How would we implement such a thing? We could start by doing this:

consteval auto is_trivially_relocatable(std::meta::info type)
    -> bool
{
    type = type_remove_cv(type);

    return type_is_scalar(type)
        or (type_is_array(type)
            and is_trivially_relocatable(
                type_remove_all_extents(type)
            ))
        or is_trivially_relocatable_class_type(type);
}

This is a fairly literal translation, where is_trivially_relocatable_class_type is something to be written shortly. But one interesting thing about the type_remove_all_extents type trait (i.e. std::remove_all_extents) is that it also works for non-array types, just returning back the same type.