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Working with Makefiles in CLion using Compilation DB -- Phil Nash

By Anastasia Kazakova | Aug 11, 2018 05:17 AM | Tags: None

CLion 2018.2 brought compilation database project format support. And it's more useful already than you may realize, as nowadays an increasing number of build systems allows generating comp db out of them. Typical example is Makefiles!

Working with Makefiles in CLion using Compilation DB

by Phil Nash

From the article:

Now that CLion can open Compilation DB JSON files it means it can effectively understand projects from many more build systems. This gives CLion full code-completion, static analysis, navigation and even refactoring on such projects. For 2018.2 we don’t yet have build (except for individual files) or debug capabilities – but these are planned for an upcoming release. To see just how useful this is, we’ll work through a couple of examples.

Sourcetrail 2018.3 released -- Eberhard Gräther

By egraether | Aug 11, 2018 05:14 AM | Tags: None

Sourcetrail is a cross-platform visual source explorer based on Clang libTooling

Sourcetrail 2018.3 released

by Eberhard Gräther

From the article:

Sourcetrail 2018.3 brings new usability features for faster source code exploration. Users can continue to browse while reindexing in the background. A graph legend and new node actions have been added to the graph visualization. The code view was extended with a local reference navigation. Project setup now supports Sonargraph and Code::Blocks project import.

CppCon 2017: So, you inherited a large code base...--David Sankel

By Adrien Hamelin | Aug 10, 2018 12:18 PM | Tags: advanced

Have you registered for CppCon 2018 in September? Registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2017 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

So, you inherited a large code base...

by David Sankel

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

This is a talk about solving the most difficult problem a software engineer ever faces, converting a large codebase with antiquated designs and spotty quality into a state-of-the-art, modern system. We'll be covering clang-based refactoring, mnemonic reasoning methods, safe rewrites, coding standards, and, oh yes, migration paths.

If you've ever been tasked with making a legacy codebase the best-in-class, or think you might, then this talk is for you.

Should I Use Overloads or Default Parameters?--Jonathan Boccara

By Adrien Hamelin | Aug 10, 2018 12:01 PM | Tags: intermediate

The answer is not obvious.

Should I Use Overloads or Default Parameters?

by Jonathan Boccara

From the article:

“Should I use overloads or default parameters”, haven’t you asked yourself that question?

When designing an interface where the user can leave the value of an argument up to the API, two approaches are possible:

Using a default parameters:

voiddrawPoint(int x, int y, Color color = Color::Black);
void drawPoint(int x, int y, Color color = Color::Black);

And using overloading:

void drawPoint(int x, int y); // draws a point in black
void drawPoint(int x, int y, Color color);

Which approach is cleaner? Which expresses better the intentions of the interface? Or is it just a matter of style?

This may be subjective, but I’m under the impression that overloading tends to have better popularity than default parameters amongst C++ developers. But I believe that both features have their usages, and it’s usefulto see what makes one or the other more adapted to a given situation.

CppCast Episode 162: The Art of C++ Libraries with Colin Hirsch

By robwirving | Aug 10, 2018 09:14 AM | Tags: None

Episode 162 of CppCast the only podcast for C++ developers by C++ developers. In this episode Rob and Jason are joined by Colin Hirsch to discuss his work on The Art of C++ collection of libraries including PEGTL, json and more.

CppCast Episode 162: The Art of C++ Libraries with Colin Hirsch

by Rob Irving and Jason Turner

About the interviewee:

Dr. Colin Hirsch studied Computer Science at the University of Technology in Aachen, Germany in 1993 and later got a PhD in Mathematics from the same university. He worked for two years as a consultant for T-Mobile, developing back-end server applications in C++ and Lua. Later Colin moved to Italy, opened his own business and continued working for T-Mobile (now Deutsche Telekom) as well as working for some other interesting projects like Greenpeace and the Austrian ministry of ecology.

In his free time he enjoys photography, being in nature, science fiction and spending time with his daughter.

CppCon 2017: Practical Techniques for Improving C++ Build Times--Dmitry Panin

By Adrien Hamelin | Aug 8, 2018 12:39 PM | Tags: efficiency

Have you registered for CppCon 2018 in September? Registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2017 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Practical Techniques for Improving C++ Build Times

by Dmitry Panin

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

Slow builds block all C++ developers from the work being done. At Facebook we have a huge codebase, where the time spent compiling C++ sources grows significantly faster than the size of the repository. In this talk we will share our practical experience optimizing build times, in some cases from several hours to just a few minutes. The majority of the techniques are open sourced or generic and can be immediately applied to your codebase.

Facebook strives to squeeze build speed out of everything: starting from a distributed build system, through the compiler toolchain and ending with code itself. We will dive into different strategies of calculating cache keys, potential caching traps and approaches to improve cache efficiency. We tune the compiler, specifically with compilation flags, profile data and link time options. We will talk about the benchmarks we use to track improvements and detect regressions and what challenges we face there. Finally, you will learn about our unsuccessful approaches with an explanation of why they didn't work out for us.

CppCon 2017: Enough x86 Assembly to Be Dangerous--Charles Bailey

By Adrien Hamelin | Aug 6, 2018 01:39 PM | Tags: community

Have you registered for CppCon 2018 in September? Registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2017 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Enough x86 Assembly to Be Dangerous

by Charles Bailey

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

This tutorial is an introduction to x86 assembly language aimed at C++ programmers of all levels who are interested in what the compiler does with their source code.

C++ is a programming language that cares about performance. As with any technology, a deep understanding of C++ is helped by knowledge of the layer below, and this means knowledge of assembly language. Knowing what the compiler does with your source code and the limitations under which it operates can inform how you design and write your C++.

We learn how to generate, inspect and interpret the assembly language for your C++ functions and programs. We take a short tour of common assembly instructions and constructs, and discover why extreme caution should be exercised if we are trying to infer performance characteristics from a simple inspection of assembly code.

Starting with a simple `operator+` for a user-defined class, we take a look at how interface and implementation choices affect the generated assembly code and observe the effect of copy elisions and related optimizations that compilers commonly perform.

C++ Foundation Developer Survey "Lite", 2018-08: C++ and Cloud

By Blog Staff | Aug 6, 2018 12:26 AM | Tags: None

cpp_logo.pngThank you to the over 3,000 people who participated six months ago in the Standard C++ Foundation's first-ever global C++ developer survey. Based on its success, we have decided to run these surveys about twice a year to learn about C++ usage generally across industries or in specific current domains.

This time, we focus on the domain of cloud-related software. As the name suggests, it's a one-pager:

C++ Developer Survey "Lite", 2018-08: C++ and Cloud

Please take 10 minutes or so to participate! A summary of the results, including aggregated highlights of common answers in the write-in responses, will be posted publicly here on isocpp.org and shared with the C++ standardization committee to help inform C++ evolution.

The survey will be open for one week.

Thank you for participating and helping to inform our committee and community.