March 19-21, Madrid, Spain
April 1-4, Bristol, UK
June 16-21, Sofia, Bulgaria
By Blog Staff | Jan 20, 2013 12:12 PM | Tags: intermediate basics
This weeked on SO:
Does constexpr imply inline?
My question is: does the
constexprspecifier imply theinlinespecifier in the sense that if a non-constant argument is passed to aconstexprfunction, the compiler will try to inline the function as if theinlinespecifier was put in its declaration ?Does the C++11 standard guarantee that ?
By Blog Staff | Jan 20, 2013 08:04 AM | Tags: None
C++11's const and constexpr have somewhat different purposes, but similar names. Hence the natural question:
Difference between
constexprandconstWhat's the difference between
constexprandconst?
- When can I use only one of them?
- When can I use both and how should I choose one?
By Blog Staff | Jan 18, 2013 05:24 PM | Tags: intermediate basics
Alex Korban has written a nice e-book that covers the parts of C++11 available in Visual Studio, including documenting limitations and bugs while still focusing on how using the C++11 features makes code cleaner, safer, and faster into the bargain.
The Visual Studio 2012 edition is now in beta. See the table of contents for what's covered, and a free sample to check out the style.
C++11 Rocks: Visual Studio 2012 Edition
by Alex Korban
Highlights from the description:
Visual Studio 2012 gives you the opportunity to use C++11 features to make your code significantly cleaner and easier to read, and to improve performance as well.
But which features are there? Are they ready for use in production code? ...
You can master the C++11 features in VS2012 with this book. It’s laser focused on C++11, Visual Studio 2012, and nothing else. You’ll quickly get in-depth knowledge of the stuff you need to know.
You’ll learn easily with tons of examples. I spent a lot of time researching and testing, and as a result the book details many C++11 bugs and cases of non-standard behavior in Visual Studio.
By Eric Niebler | Jan 17, 2013 12:44 PM | Tags: intermediate advanced
The High Performance ParalleX (HPX) library has produced its 0.9.5 release. Here's a snippet about HPX from its release announcement.
HPX 0.9.5 Released
[...] HPX (High Performance ParalleX) is a general C++ runtime system for parallel and distributed applications of any scale. It is the first freely available, open source, feature-complete, modular, and performance oriented implementation of the ParalleX execution model. HPX is targeted at conventional architectures and, currently, Linux based systems, such as SMP nodes and conventional clusters. [...]
By Blog Staff | Jan 16, 2013 05:54 PM | Tags: intermediate basics advanced
On-Site C++ Training at All Levelsby industry veteran Leor Zolman
Note: For a limited time, any 4- or 5-day training includes the C++11 Overview.
Our C++ and C seminars have been designed by some of the best-known, most effective C++ educators practicing today. In addition to materials created by Leor our C++ training repertoire features courses licensed from and supported by industry leaders Dan Saks and Stephen C. Dewhurst.
A Whirlwind Overview of C++11 (1/2-day, author: Leor Zolman)
Advanced C++ (Author: Stephen C. Dewhurst)
Effective C++ (3-, 4- and 5-day versions of courseware by Scott Meyers based on his books)
An Effective Introduction to the Standard Template Library (STL) (Author: Scott Meyers)
C++ for Non-C Programmers (Author: Leor Zolman)
C++ and Object-Oriented Programming (a.k.a. C++ for C Programmers). (Author: Dan Saks)
A sample unit of any course is available upon request.
Contact us today for more information or to schedule an on-site training at your location!
By Eric Niebler | Jan 16, 2013 01:03 PM | Tags: None
For many of our readers, LLVM and Clang will need no introduction. LLVM is a modular compiler toolchain, and Clang is an LLVM front-end for the C family of languages. They're both implemented in C++. Together, they're taking the C++ toolchain in new directions. Be a part of the action at this just-announced developer conference in April in Paris. (Does it get better?) From the announcement:
Announcements
We are pleased to announce the third European LLVM conference on April 29-30 2013 in Paris, France. This will be a two day conference which aims to present the latest developments in the LLVM world and help strengthen the network of LLVM developers. The format will be similar to that of the previous meetings held in London but with more time for presentations and networking. The meeting is open to anyone whether from business or academia, professional or enthusiast and is not restricted to those from Europe -- attendees from all regions are welcome.
This meeting is about 8 days after the ISO C++ standardization meeting in Bristol, UK. Twofer, anyone? The full announcement gives all the details.
By Herb Sutter | Jan 15, 2013 01:40 PM | Tags: None
You've probably seen the headlines:
[US-CERT] Java in Web Browser: Disable Now!
We've been telling people to disable Java for years. ... We have confirmed that VU#625617 can be used to reliably execute code on Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms. And the exploit code for the vulnerability is publicly available and already incorporated into exploit kits. This should be enough motivation for you to turn Java off.
Firefox and Apple have blocked Java while U.S. Homeland Security recommends everyone disable it, because of vulnerabilities
Homeland Security still advises disabling Java, even after update
Some people have asked whether last week's and similar recent Java vulnerabilities are actually C or C++ vulnerabilities -- because, like virtually all modern systems software, Java is implemented in C and C++.
The answer is no, these particular exploits are pure Java. Some other exploits have indeed used vulnerabilities in Java's native C code implementation, but the major vulnerabilities in the news lately are in Java itself, and they enable portable exploits on any operating system with a single program. Note that this isn't to single out Java; other managed code environments have had similar vulnerabilities reported as well.
Today CERT posted an analysis of the current Java vulnerabilities, written by our own ISO C++ committee member David Svoboda:
Anatomy of Java Exploits
by David Svoboda
Java was exploited recently and last August. The August exploit was patched by Oracle on August 30; this most recent exploit now also has a patch available. Strictly speaking, the vulnerabilities that permitted both exploits are independent; the current exploit attacked code that was unused by the August exploit. Nevertheless, these vulnerabilities were quite similar. This blog post examines the vulnerabilities that permitted Java to be exploited in each case, using the proof-of-concept code exploits that have been published for them in January 2013 and August 2012.
The article demonstrates and comments on how security issues are common to all modern languages. From the conclusion:
While many previous Java vulnerabilities were actually vulnerabilities in the C code of a particular Java implementation, these exploits ran with pure Java -- no underlying C/C++ vulnerability was involved.
This doesn't mean Java is a horrible language any more than vulnerabilities in C and C++ make those horrible languages. Rather, it emphasizes that security is hard in any language or environment, and pretending otherwise is never helpful. For example, CERT publishes secure coding guidlines for various languages (the Java book coauthored by the author of the blog post above, David Svoboda):
And as Svoboda's CERT blog post today noted, many of today's popular attacks aren't language-specific, and:
... injection attacks, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and command injection, occur in all languages that permit string manipulation.
Just like it isn't enough to think that using C++, which advertises an emphasis on performance, by itself means your code will be fast, it isn't enough to think that using a language that advertises an emphasis on safety means your code will be secure. As Robert Seacord, author or coauthor of both books above, said in email yesterday:
"The fact is that you need to understand the problems in whatever language you are using and diligently apply secure coding practices and principles if you want to have any hope of developing secure systems."
That's a lesson we can all benefit from, no matter which modern mainstream language we use.
By Blog Staff | Jan 14, 2013 04:41 PM | Tags: None
POCO versions 1.4.6 (stable) and 1.5.1 (development preview) are now available. Version 1.5.1 is a preview of the next major stable 1.6.0 release planned for this spring.
Here is the short note in its entirely. The links take to you the original announcement.
Releases 1.4.6 and 1.5.1 Available
Stable release 1.4.6 brings some bugfixes and minor enhancements. See the CHANGELOG for the details. This is planned to be the last release in the 1.4 series.
Development release 1.5.1 is a major step towards the next stable 1.6.0 release planned for this spring. See the CHANGELOG for what’s new.
Get the source code from the download page or directly from GitHub.
By Eric Niebler | Jan 14, 2013 11:04 AM | Tags: intermediate experimental
In December, we announced the opening of the SG9 (Ranges) mailing list. Since then, the activity on it has been nothing short of amazing, and the discussion is of a markedly high quality. Ranges promise a improvement in usability, power, and safety for the STL. If you have ever wanted to see how the C++ Standardization Committee crafts the future of C++, sidle on over to the Ranges group and learn about the future of the STL from many of the people who have helped shape it since its inception. Watch tomorrow's C++ take shape today, and maybe help shape it yourself.
Read the list archives here, or sign up to get the blow-by-blow here.
P.S. You can start using (one implementation of) Ranges today over at Boost (see Boost.Range's docs).
By Blog Staff | Jan 13, 2013 03:15 PM | Tags: None
Over the holidays we've made several improvements to isocpp.org. Many are behind the scenes where most readers won't notice, but here are a few that a more visible. We hope you find them useful.
Today, we added a new home page feature: Selected highlights from StackOverflow's [c++] and [c++11] tags, and from Programmers.StackExchange's [c++11] tag. We are pleased to endorse these sites as a premier place for question-and-answer discussion about modern C++ -- if you have a question about C++, you can probably already find the answer there, or post a new question and get a high-quality answer quickly. Please note: StackOverflow and StackExchange are for Q&A only, and actively discourage "discussion" styles -- for discussion about the Standard, see the Forums accessible from this site.
SO and SE are high-traffic sites, and many of our readers may only have time to consume a shorter "highlights reel" summary each day. That's why our home page shows an "auto-curated" filtered subset of the SO and SE traffic, selecting highlights from each feed using criteria that we can adjust over time. However, for those interested in following the full flow of questions on StackOverflow or StackExchange, we also provide a handy RSS link for each feed that lets you directly subscribe to the corresponding full feed. In the future, if there's interest, we might also consider providing our own custom RSS feeds for those who want to follow our custom filtered versions of the higher-volume SO and SE feeds.
Each blog entry is now tagged, so you can more easily find the kind of content that interests you.
Here are the tags we're using initially:
basics: General information useful to anyone using C++, including programmers coming to C++ for the first time.intermediate: Information that assumes you have a working familiarity with C++ and are ready to dig a little deeper.advanced: Information for C++ experts that assumes you know C++ pretty well, want to make the most of it, and aren't afraid to "lift the hood" from time to time to take full control.experimental: Material that isn't about Standard C++ today, but about what it could be -- including articles talking about future language and library extensions, and even prototype compiler implementations of future language features.Sometimes posts will have multiple tags, when they point to material that covers useful information at more than one level. For instance, "Panel" style videos often range widely over many useful topics, and may include a lot of generally useful information appropriate to all levels while also including some pretty advanced parts of interest to experts. The goal is that if you're looking for, say, "intermediate" material, then following that tag will deliver only those items that have significant intermediate content, even if some parts may be more basic or advanced.
When you read a post, you'll see the tag(s) listed near the top. You can click on any tag to see what else has been posted with that tag. Over the next few days, we'll be adding an easy way to drill into each tag without going to a blog post first.
You can now edit your own blog comments. Also, formatting control has been improved, with some more improvements coming. As always, including a nicely-formatted code block in your comment is as easy as wrapping it with <pre> and </pre>.
We've also made many more improvements under the covers, and will have more to show you in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned.