Modernize your C++ code

by the CoderGears Team

C++11 includes several additions to the core language and extends the C++ standard library. Some of these new features are very easy to use and bring a big added value to your C++ projects...

Compile-Time and Runtime-Safe Replacement for “printf”

by Sasha Goldshtein

C++ 11 is truly beautiful. And one of the ways in which it is beautiful is how you can implement a compile-time and runtime-safe version of the popular C runtime function printf...

Iterators++, Part 1

by Eric Niebler

In the last post, I described the so-called proxy iterator problem: the fact that iterators that return proxy references instead of real references don’t sit comfortably within the STL’s framework. Real, interesting, and useful iterators fall foul of this line, iterators like vector<bool>‘s or like the iterator of the zip view I presented. In this post, I investigate what we could do to bring proxy iterators into the fold — what it means for both the iterator concepts and for the algorithms. Since I’m a library guy, I restrict myself to talking about pure library changes...

Still Comparing "this" Pointer to Null?

by Dmitry Meshcheryakov

In the same way the compiler can optimize the code comparing "this" pointer to null. According to the Standard, this cannot be null and therefore the checks and the corresponding code branches can be eliminated, which will greatly affect the code dependent on the comparison of "this" pointer to null. The compiler has a full right to "break" (actually just break it further) the code CWindow::GetSafeHandle() and generate machine code which doesn't contain the comparison and only reads the class field all the time.
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GOOD LORD, the "this" pointer equals 0x00000004 on entering the method when compiled in Visual C++ 9, as the pointer initially set to null is adjusted so that it points to the beginning of a subobject of the corresponding class.

Back to the Basics! Essentials of Modern C++ Style

by Herb Sutter

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

This talk revisits basic questions, such as how to declare and initialize a variable, how to pass a value to a function, how to write a simple loop, and how to use smart pointers, in the light of experience with C++11 and the latest C++14 refinements. This involves examining auto, rvalue references, range-for loops, uniform initialization, lambda expressions, unique_ptr and shared_ptr, and more.

Snail | Continuation-ready algorithms from STL algorithms

by Manu Sánchez

Snail is my try to get a continuation-ready set of algorithms to operate on C++ containers, but instead of reinventing all the algorithms, addapting them through a continuation monad (or something resembling a continuation monad).

No need to square, sum, and sqrt manually anymore

by Indi

I hang out a lot with engineers and game programmers, so that means I tend to see a lot of code dealing with physics problems. One of the most commonly used bits of code in both domains has to be the Euclidean distance equation. However, few programmers realize that that equation is a lot easier than it used to be...

Improving error messages in C++ by transporting substitution failures

by Paul Fultz II

This is an advanced blog post more geared to library writers who want to improve error messages due to substitution failure. It discuss how substitution failures can be transported so the correct information can be presented to the user. Lets first look at the problem...

The bell has tolled for rand()

by Indi

In their recent meeting in Urbana, the C++ standard committee took the rare step of removing several outdated facilities from (what will probably become) C++17. Most of the things removed had been deprecated since C++11, but there was one surprising item on the list: std::random_shuffle(). Its removal is a signal of a big change that has been building in the background for a while: the end of std::rand()...

Objects? No Thanks!

by Wouter van Ooijen

Micro-controller programming can benefit from compile-time polymorphism without paying a run-time price by using static class templates...