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Value-initialization with C++ -- Andrzej KrzemieĊ„ski

By Blog Staff | Sep 12, 2013 08:09 AM | Tags: None

Do you know what value-initialization means, and why it's simpler in C++11?

Value-initialization with C++

by Andrzej Krzemieński

From the article:

Some time ago, I showed how boost::value_initialized can be used to value-initialize objects in generic components in C++03. In C++11 it is practically not necessary. C++11 gives you a way to force value-initialization of your objects in any possible initialization context.

Are you familiar with term “value initialization”? It is sometimes confused with “default-initialization”...

LLVM Toolchain on Windows -- Chandler Carruth

By Eric Niebler | Sep 6, 2013 09:27 AM | Tags: None

Have you been waiting to use clang until it works on Windows? Your wait is over. The inimitable Chandler Carruth from Google announced an honest-to-god Windows installer for the LLVM toolchain that integrates into Visual Studio, and links with the native C++ runtime.

A Path Forward for an LLVM Toolchain on Windows

by Chandler Carruth

[...] we’ve been driving many of the efforts around compatibility with Visual Studio and native Windows C++ code in Clang and LLD (the LLVM linker). Today, as announced at my GoingNative 2013 talk, we are able to build a trivial C++ application that in turn links against native C++ libraries and uses them in real, interesting ways. This is a huge milestone for the project, and something we’re really excited to be talking more about.

Continue reading...

Planetary: First Smithsonian curation of code created using C++ and Cinder-- S Chan & A Cope

By matt | Sep 5, 2013 12:23 PM | Tags: graphics creative coding cinder

The first piece of code acquired by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum -- "Planetary", written in C++.

Planetary: collecting and preserving code as a living object

Posted by Sebastian Chan & Aaron Cope on Monday August 26, 2013

From the article:

Cooper-Hewitt has just acquired its first piece of code. Although the collection has objects that are the end result of algorithmic processes, notably Patrick Jouin's 3D printed chair, Solid C2, this is the first time that code, itself, has been collected.

Almost all contemporary design practice involves digital processes -- from the ubiquitous Adobe design software to CAD packages used by product designers and architects, to the simple day-to-day office management and accounting software -- it would be difficult to find a designer who lives entirely 'off the grid.’ Despite this, design museums have been slow to start to add software to their permanent collections.

Some of this reticence to collect digital objects stems from deep uncertainties as to how to preserve and present such objects to future visitors and future scholars. But for Cooper-Hewitt these uncertainties have been a strong driver to experiment.

So, here we have Planetary.

Planetary is an iPad application written in C++ using the Cinder framework. Planetary offers an alternative music player application for the iPad that visualizes your music collection as a series of celestial bodies. Songs are moons, albums are planets, artists are suns—and the orbits of each are determined by the length of albums and tracks. Their brightness represents their frequency of playback.

Continue reading...

Tales of C++ - Episode Six: Boollocks--K-ballo

By matt | Sep 3, 2013 10:12 AM | Tags: intermediate bool

Tales of C++, Episode 6:

Boollocks

by K-Ballo

From the article:

In the beginning there was no bool. And C++ said "let there be bool", and there was bool...

The Boolean data type is an integral type with only two values: true and false, intended to represent the truth values of logic and Boolean algebra. With only two values, what can possibly go wrong?

Continue reading...

GoingNative will be livestreamed this week: Sep 4-6

By Blog Staff | Sep 1, 2013 03:23 PM | Tags: None

The GoingNative 2013 conference starts Wednesday and is just about sold out. A few seats remain, so register now (or get on the waitlist in case there's a last-minute cancellation you can snag).

It's decidedly desirable to be physically in the room to get the full experience, and hundreds of people from over 10 countries are already on their way. But if you can't come in person to Redmond, WA, USA for this week's C++ fest, you'll be glad to know the talks will be livestreamed as well on the Channel 9 homepage. The streaming is compatible with all major platforms. For those of you around the world, please note that the talk times are in North American Pacific Daylight Time.

Talks include the following, including both full-length talks and a number of 20- and 30-minute "nuggets."

Day 1: Wed Sep 4

  • Opening Keynote: The Essence of C++ -- With Examples in C++84, C++98, C++11, and C++14 (Bjarne Stroustrup)
  • C++ Seasoning (Sean Parent)
  • Writing Quick Code in C++, Quickly (Andrei Alexandrescu)
  • Don’t Help the Compiler (Stephan T. Lavavej)
  • Compiler++ (Jim Radigan)

Day 2: Thu Sep 5

  • Day 2 Keynote: One C++ (Herb Sutter)
  • rand() Considered Harmful (Stephan T. Lavavej)
  • An Effective C++11/14 Sampler (Scott Meyers)
  • C++14: Through the Looking Glass (Michael Wong)
  • The Care and Feeding of C++’s Dragons (Chandler Carruth)
  • Interactive Panel: Ask Us Anything! (speakers)

Day 3: Fri Sep 6

  • Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Threading (But...) (Elliot H. Omiya)
  • The Way of the Exploding Tuple (Andrei Alexandrescu)
  • To Move or Not to Move: That is the Question (Michael Wong)
  • Bringing await to C++ (Deon Brewis)
  • A C++ REST SDK: OSS web services on Windows and Linux (Niklas Gustafsson)
  • Compiler Confidential (Eric Brumer)
  • Find-Build-Share-Use: Using NuGet for C and C++ Libraries (Garrett Serack)
  • My Favorite C++ 10-Liner (Herb Sutter)

 

C++ Conferences This Fall

By Meeting C++ | Sep 1, 2013 12:57 PM | Tags: community basics advanced

I've created a short overview over the C++ Conferences this Fall:

  • Going Native (Seattle, 4.th-6.9) SOLD OUT
  • International Workshop on OpenMP (Canberra (AU), 16-18.9)
  • (not a conference, but...) Fall ISO C++ meeting (Chicago, 23-28.9)
  • QtDevDays Europe (Berlin, 7th - 9.10)
  • QtDevDays US (San Francisco, 6th-8.11)
  • Meeting C++ 2013 (Düsseldorf, 8th-9.11)
  • C++ and Beyond (Snoqualmie Falls (WA/US), 9th-12.12) SOLD OUT

More details at Meeting C++

by Jens Weller

A Glimpse into C++14: Combine Flexibility and Performance with Dynamic Arrays and... -- Danny Kalev

By Blog Staff | Aug 28, 2013 12:45 PM | Tags: basics

cpp14-target.jpgDanny Kalev wrote a nice article yesterday about a new C++ feature -- actually, two related C++14 features -- that were just added to the draft Standard in April and will be coming to real compilers in the near future.

A Glimpse into C++14: Combine Flexibility and Performance with Dynamic Arrays and Runtime-Sized Arrays

by Danny Kalev

From the article:

C99 introduced the notion of variable length arrays: stack allocated built-in arrays whose size is determined at runtime. C++ lacks a similar feature, to the discontent of many a programmer. However, two recent proposals for adding dynamic arrays and runtime-sized arrays to C++14 are closing the gap at last. Learn how to use these new features to imitate C99’s variable length arrays in C++...

Optimizing C++ Code: Dead Code Elimination -- Jim Hogg

By Blog Staff | Aug 28, 2013 12:29 PM | Tags: intermediate

We keep hearing about C++'s "as if" rule, but what does it really do? Fundamentally, it enables optimizations. A modern compiler never produces an executable that's identical to the program you actually wrote; it produces an equivalent program that's probably a lot better.

Hence Jim Hogg's nice new series on what optimizing compilers do, using Visual C++ as an example. The latest instalment:

Optimizing C++ Code : Dead Code Elimination

by Jim Hogg

From the article:

This post examines the optimization called Dead-Code-Elimination, which I’ll abbreviate to DCE.  It does what it says: discards any calculations whose results are not actually used by the program.

Now, you will probably assert that your code calculates only results that are used, and never any results that are not used: only an idiot, after all, would gratuitously add useless code -- calculating the first 1000 digits of pi, for example, whilst also doing something useful.  So when would the DCE optimization ever have an effect? ...