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CppCon 2025 To Err is Human: Robust Error Handling in C++26 -- Sebastian Theophil

By Blog Staff | Aug 24, 2025 08:45 AM | 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!

To Err is Human: Robust Error Handling in C++26

Wednesday, September 17 15:15 - 16:15 MDT

by Sebastian Theophil

Summary of the talk:

Every program may encounter errors, some originating from internal bugs in the program, others coming from the environment the program is operating in. Ignoring all errors will make the program utterly unreliable, while treating every conceivable one introduces lots of extra complexity with little benefit. So which errors should you handle? And how should you handle them? This talk describes our proven approach to error handling so that you can write more reliable software with less effort.

C++23 and C++26 have seen several improvements to C++ error handling: std::stacktrace, std::expected, contracts and library hardening. We will cover these features as well and how to best use them in practice to catch more errors, report them and fix them.

Sebastian has been working at think-cell since its founding in 2002. In the last few years, among many other things, he has ported think-cell to run on macOS. He is also the maintainer of the typescripten project which lets programmers call JavaScript libraries from C++ code compiled to WebAssembly in a convenient and type-safe way. He enjoys leaving his desk from time to time to talk at international C++ conferences.

CppCon 2025 Mastering the Code Review Process -- Peter Muldoon

By Blog Staff | Aug 22, 2025 07:43 AM | Tags: None

Mastering the Code Review Process

Wednesday, September 17 15:15 - 16:15 MDT

by Peter Muldoon

Summary of the talk:

In software development, significant attention is given to writing clean, maintainable code. Yet, despite the best of intentions, many codebases drift from structured practices due to inconsistent or ineffective code reviews. This is a real problem as it is the last line of defense before merging and deploying changes to production.

Engineers spend far more time reading code than writing it. Even small changes demand a thorough understanding of the surrounding code to prevent errors and unintended consequences. An effective code review process significantly amplifies good coding practices, structured problem-solving, and overall code quality.

This talk outlines core principles for conducting impactful code reviews emphasizing methodologies that balance consistent evaluation with the flexibility for handling the inevitable unusual situations.

We will also explore practical ways to measure code review effectiveness , enabling teams to continuously improve their code review process. What would a code review checklist look like? What are the consequences and friction points of a poor code review process?

As the code review process matures within an organization, it can also be shown to act as an effective instructional tool and drive positive organizational change , enhancing both the quality of the codebase and the capability of individual teams.

Pete Muldoon has been using C++ since 1991. Pete has worked in Ireland, England and the USA and is currently employed by Bloomberg. A consultant for over 20 years prior to joining Bloomberg, Peter has worked on a broad range of projects and code bases in a large number of companies both tech and finance. Such broad exposure has, over time, shown what works and what doesn't for large scale engineering projects. He's a proponent of applied engineering principles, elegant solutions and expressive code.

CppCon 2025 Best Practices for AI Tool Use -- Jason Turner

By Blog Staff | Aug 20, 2025 08:40 AM | Tags: None

Best Practices for AI Tool Use

Wednesday, September 17 09:00 - 10:00 MDT

by Jason Turner

Summary of the talk:

AI (LLMs) are becoming prolific in C++ tooling. Virtually everything has an AI bot built in or available to it. Common wisdom says that these tools simply regurgitate what they find on the internet. As we all know, the internet is full of terrible examples of outdated memory leaks, undefined behavior, and worse!

How do we effectively and safely use these tools while ensuring good code quality?!

Jason is host of the YouTube channel C++Weekly, co-host emeritus of the podcast CppCast, author of C++ Best Practices, and author of the first casual puzzle books designed to teach C++ fundamentals while having fun!

CppCon 2025 std::optional --- Optional Over References -- Steve Downey

By Blog Staff | Aug 18, 2025 02:36 PM | Tags: None

std::optional --- Optional Over References

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

by Steve Downey

Summary of the talk:

Optionals were first proposed for C++ in 2005.

Optional , where T is constrained not to be a reference, was added in 2017.

Optionals for lvalue references are on track to be added in C++ 26.

What are we getting and what design choices were made? This talk will show the results.

This talk will discuss the early history of Optionals, starting with Boost.Optional and “N1878: A Proposal to Add an Utility Class to Represent Optional Objects (Revision 1)”, and what the early concerns were for the reference specialization. “P1175R0: A Simple and Practical Optional Reference for C++” then re-proposed reference support for C++20, which was not adopted. In 2020, “P1683R0: References for Standard Library Vocabulary Types - an optional<> case study” surveyed existing behavior of optional references in the wild, and pointed out the trap of assignment behavior being state dependent. In 2023, “P2988R0: Std:Optional” picked up the torch again, and Revision 10 of that is the proposal that is approved by the Library Working Group.

In 2024, “P3168R0: Give Std:Optional Range Support”, the proposal to make optional a range -- as opposed to having a separate range of zero or one -- was adopted. The reference implementation for optional

Steve Downey has been a programmer for more than 30 years. Steve graduated from SUNY Purchase with a BS in Mathematics. A Computer Science degree would have involved two classes before 11:00 am, so was impossible.

He has worked at Bloomberg since 2003, and is currently working as an Engineer on the C++ Infrastructure team.

CppCon 2025 Back to Basics: Refactoring -- Amir Kirsh

By Blog Staff | Aug 16, 2025 02:36 PM | Tags: None

Back to Basics: Refactoring

Tuesday, September 16 09:00 - 10:00 MDT

by Amir Kirsh

Summary of the talk:

Writing C++ code is one thing, keeping it clean, readable and maintainable over time is another. In this talk, we'll review the basics of refactoring C++ code, focusing on strategies to improve code clarity, reduce duplication, and make your code easier to maintain. You'll learn how to identify code smells, recognize when refactoring is needed, and apply techniques to improve readability. We will also explore how to modernize your code by leveraging new C++ features when relevant, ensuring that your code not only adheres to best practices but is also aligned with the evolving standards of the language. Participants will gain practical knowledge on how to refactor C++ code to enhance clarity, reduce complexity, and improve long-term maintainability, a skill that becomes even more essential as AI starts generating parts of our codebase. This talk is part of the Back to Basics track and is designed for C++ beginners, but it can also be useful for intermediate and experienced developers who want to revisit the fundamentals of maintaining clean, well-structured C++ code through effective refactoring.

Amir Kirsh is a C++ lecturer at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and Tel-Aviv University, previously the Chief Programmer at Comverse, after being CTO and VP R&D at a startup acquired by Comverse. He is also a co-organizer of the annual Core C++ conference and a member of the ISO C++ Israeli National Body.

CppCon 2025 Missing Step: Making Data Oriented Design One Million Times Faster -- Andrew Drakeford

By Blog Staff | Aug 14, 2025 09:31 AM | Tags: None

The Missing Step: Making Data Oriented Design One Million Times Faster

Tuesday, September 16 09:00 - 10:00 MDT

by Andrew Drakeford

Summary of the talk:

Data-oriented design (DOD) has gained traction for its practical approach to solving real-world problems. Refactoring data into an Entity-Component format sets the stage for cleaner, more efficient implementations, where lambdas process ranges and SIMD operations exploit the power of contiguous data layouts. DOD is widely recognised for addressing hardware-related performance challenges, but where do these challenges originate? The engineers behind our hardware platforms didn’t design performance bottlenecks; they created performance opportunities. By engineering how our code interacts with hardware, we can unlock these opportunities and achieve substantial speed-ups. The key lies in understanding and exploiting the state of the system. From the instruction cache and registers to the L1 cache and memory access patterns, the processor's statefulness plays a crucial role in performance. Writing "hardware-friendly" code is fundamentally about aligning with this state. But hardware is only part of the equation. What about the statefulness of our software? By carefully engineering the sequence of operations and algorithms to align with both hardware and software states, we can achieve unparalleled optimization. This is the missing step. Engaging with the design problem in full can be very difficult. We leverage George Polya’s problem-solving process and heuristics to guide our approach. This presentation explores these principles through real-world examples in machine learning and mathematical finance, demonstrating how addressing both sides of the problem can improve performance by orders of magnitude. (Yes, even six orders of magnitude.) Attendees will leave with insights into the exploration process and actionable techniques that might lead to achieving similar gains in their own work. It has been noted that some attendees might start drawing more diagrams when problem-solving and have an overwhelming urge to get Polya’s book.

Andrew Drakeford A Physics PhD who started developing C++ applications in the early 90s at British Telecom labs. For the last two decades, he has worked in finance developing efficient calculation libraries and trading systems in C++. His current focus is on making quant libraries more ecologically sound. He is a member of the BSI C++ panel.

CppCon 2025 What's New for VS Code: Perf., Debugging, & GitHub Copilot Agents -- Alexandra Kemper

By Blog Staff | Aug 12, 2025 09:19 AM | Tags: None

What's New for Visual Studio Code: Performance, Debugging, & GitHub Copilot Agents

Tuesday, September 16 09:00 - 10:00 MDT

by Alexandra Kemper

Summary of the talk:

Join us for a deep dive into the latest advancements for C++ in Visual Studio Code, designed to help modern C++ developers tackle real-world challenges with a faster, smarter, and more customizable development environment. In this talk, we’ll showcase updates to the C++ extension, featuring several performance improvements and new LLDB debugging capabilities that will streamline the process of identifying and resolving issues in your code. We’ll also explore updates to the CMake Tools extension, including new CMake language services that are now available in-house to provide rich language support for CMake files. Additionally, discover how GitHub Copilot support for C++ developers has evolved in the last year, including the new Agent mode that can help you with complex, multi-step coding tasks such as modernizing your C++ repo. Whether you are maintaining legacy code or building for the future with C++, Copilot can help you write, build, and refactor your C++ code to streamline your development experience – all within VS Code.

Alexandra Kemper graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Computer Science. She works at Microsoft as the PM of the C++ Extension.

CppCon 2025 Type Traits without Compiler Instrinsics: Promise of Static Reflection -- Andrei Zissu

By Blog Staff | Aug 10, 2025 09:16 AM | Tags: None

Type Traits without Compiler Instrinsics - The Promise of Static Reflection

Monday, September 15 14:00 - 15:00 MDT

by Andrei Zissu

Summary of the talk:

Type traits are a powerful feature of C++ that allows programmers to query and manipulate the properties of types at compile time. They are widely used in generic programming and metaprogramming to enable static polymorphism, type-based dispatching, and compile-time optimization. However, not all type traits can be implemented using the C++ language alone. Some type traits, such as std::is_class, require special support from the compiler in the form of compiler intrinsics or built-ins. These intrinsics are non-portable functions or variables that are recognized and handled by the compiler directly, rather than being defined in a library.

In this talk, we will have a quick overview of the current state of type traits and of static reflection in C++. We will then see how these two worlds can join forces to give us a superior portable product, which no longer requires the use of compiler intrinsics. We will conclude by discussing a possible future where compiler and library are not necessarily mutually dependent, affording any C++ project greater freedom of choice.

Andrei Zissu is a veteran cross-industry C++ developer, notably having worked on low-level reverse engineering systems employing API hooking, DLL injection and other advanced techniques. He has been a member of the WG21 C++ Standards Committee since early 2022, and as such is actively involved in the contracts study group (SG21) and is also keeping a keen eye on reflection work in SG7. He is currently employed as Windows Tech Lead at Morphisec, a revolutionary Israeli cybersecurity company.

CppCon 2025 Building Robust Inter-Process Queues in C++ -- Jody Hagins

By Blog Staff | Aug 8, 2025 08:13 AM | Tags: None

Building Robust Inter-Process Queues in C++

Monday, September 15 14:00 - 15:00 MDT

by Jody Hagins

Summary of the talk:

This talk will offer design and implementation details of a queue intended to be used between multiple processes.

The C++ standard was written with a single-process worldview, mentioning processes only once—in a note stating that lock-free atomic operations work across process boundaries. This has led to widespread but incorrect advice about using std::atomic in shared memory. When moving queue implementations from threads to processes, seemingly rock-solid code can induce undefined behavior.

In addition, traditional queue interfaces are fundamentally insufficient for cross-process communication. A properly designed inter-process queue API must enforce role separation, ensuring that a process can only perform operations appropriate to its designated role. For example, a producer process should not be able to consume messages or manage the queue itself, and the API should prevent multiple processes from accidentally assuming the same role in a single-producer design.

By the end of this talk, you will understand the fundamental differences between thread process synchronization, how to design proper interfaces for interprocess queues that enforce correct usage across process boundaries, and practical techniques to ensure your cross-process code works reliably in production environments.

Oh yeah, and you will have a full implementation that you can use and improve upon.

Jody Hagins has been using C++ for the better part of four decades. He remains amazed at how much he does not know after all those years. He has spent most of that time designing and building systems in C++, for use in the high frequency trading space.

CppCon 2025 How C++26 Changes the Way We Write Code -- Timur Doumler

By Blog Staff | Aug 6, 2025 09:10 AM | Tags: None

How C++26 Changes the Way We Write Code

Monday, September 15 11:00 - 120:00 MDT

by Timur Doumler

Summary of the talk:

After the release of C++20, with groundbreaking new features like coroutines, concepts, ranges, and modules, and the more modest feature set of C++23, the upcoming C++26 Standard is shaping up to be another major milestone.

Trivial relocation evolves move semantics to the next level to unlock significant new performance benefits; contract assertions introduce portable, scalable, and configurable correctness checks for identifying program defects and making C++ code safer; and the new execution control library provides a powerful generic framework that redefines how to do asynchronous programming in C++. Finally, the most eagerly anticipated feature of C++26 — reflection — will profoundly reshape how we reason about C++ and what we can accomplish with it.

This talk is the latest installment in a popular series of talks about how each new C++ Standard changes the way we write code — from everyday idioms to advanced patterns — with a practical focus on what matters most to real-world developers. This is not a firehose talk that tries to cram as many additions to the latest Standard as possible into one hour. Instead, we focus deliberately on just a handful of particularly impactful features and highlight the essential parts that every C++ developer needs to know.

Timur Doumler is the co-host of CppCast and an active member of the ISO C++ standard committee, where he is currently co-chair of SG21, the Contracts study group. Timur started his journey into C++ in computational astrophysics, where he was working on cosmological simulations. He then moved into the audio and music technology industry, where he has been working for over a decade and co-founded the music tech startup Cradle. In the past, Timur also worked for JetBrains, first as a developer on CLion's C++ parser and later as a Developer Advocate for C++ developer tools. Currently, Timur lives in Finland, where he is organising the monthly C++ Helsinki meetup. Timur is passionate about clean code, good tools, low latency, and the evolution of the C++ language.