March 11-13, Online
March 16-18, Madrid, Spain
March 23-28, Croydon, London, UK
March 30, Kortrijk, Belgium
May 4-8, Aspen, CO, USA
May 4-8, Toronto, Canada
June 8 to 13, Brno, Czechia
June 17-20, Folkestone, UK
September 12-18, Aurora, CO, USA
November 6-8, Berlin, Germany
November 16-21, Búzios, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
By Blog Staff | Jul 28, 2013 10:58 AM | Tags: basics
Yes, C++ is for beginning programmers too. This is a delightful introduction to C++ programming -- and with nice test-first style to boot.
Larry and Jen Do Roman Numerals in C++
by Jon Jagger and Olve Maudal
By Blog Staff | Jul 28, 2013 10:29 AM | Tags: advanced
From this month's KDE Akademy conference:
Expression Templates: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Template Meta-Programming (30 min video) (slides)
by Volker Krause
The speaker's opening words should be enough to get you to set aside a half hour:
"I'm going to talk about template metaprogramming in general and expression templates in particular. And that's obviously something we use every day. <laughter> You laugh, but in half an hour you will see that we actually do..."
Abstract:
Contrary to common perception, expression templates are not bizarre meta-programming theory but something you are (possibly unknowingly) using every day. We'll see what they are good for, how they work and and what to do if they don't.
Originally invented by Todd Veldhuizen for the use in the math library Blitz++, expression templates are often seen as one of those esoteric applications of C++ template meta-programming that results in completely incomprehensible code that only Marc and Thiago understand at best, and that gives you compiler errors longer than an average discussion on the right display manager.
In this talk we will try to counter this (wrong) perception, by looking at why and how this (syntactically) indeed somewhat complex code results in very elegant API and often outperforms conventional implementations. On the way we will see that C++ template meta-programming code is actually not that scary, and that template-related compiler errors aren't that bad either.
Now why would this be of interest to the average Qt or KDE developer? Well, since the introduction of QStringBuilder in Qt 4.7 we have expression templates for a very common use case, string concatenations. And if your code is somewhere in KDE Git, it's very likely Laurent enabled the use of QStringBuilder for you already. So, we are not talking about exotic theory here, but about tools you are using every day.
By Blog Staff | Jul 26, 2013 11:06 AM | Tags: basics
Koenig's latest just went live at DDJ:
Is Moving Objects Worth the Hassle?
by Andrew Koenig
From the article:
Last week, I discussed how C++ compilers use overloading to decide whether to move or copy an object. This week, I'd like to take a step back and discuss why moving instead of copying is worth doing in the first place.
You might think that this claim needs no justification. After all, copying takes time; so programs that copy a lot of data will be slower than programs that avoid doing so. However, this kind of unthinking optimization can lead to trouble. For example...
By NoSenseEtAl | Jul 24, 2013 07:22 AM | Tags: intermediate
[Blog suggestion by NoSenseEtAl. Text below added by editor.]
Scott Meyers gave a well-received "beta" talk last week at NWCPP on the topic below, which he described as the most complex Item he's encountered as he prepares his upcoming book Effective C++11/14:
The Universal Reference/Overloading Collision Conundrum
by Scott Meyers
Abstract:
To help address the confusion that arises when rvalue references become lvalue references through reference collapsing, Scott Meyers introduced the notion of "universal references." In this presentation, he builds on this foundation by explaining that overloading functions on rvalue references is sensible and useful, while seemingly similar overloading on universal references yields confusing, unhelpful behavior. But what do you do when you want to write a perfect forwarding function (which requires universal references), yet you want to customize its behavior for certain types? If overloading is off the table, what's on? In this talk, Scott surveys a variety of options.
Though Scott will give a one-slide overview of the idea behind universal references at the beginning of the presentation, attendees are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the notion in more detail prior to the talk. Links to written and video introductions to universal references are available here.
By Blog Staff | Jul 24, 2013 04:20 AM | Tags: basics
A cute nugget about [[noreturn]]:
The Point of No Return
by bulldozer00
As part of learning the new feature set in C++11, I stumbled upon the weird syntax for the new “attribute” feature:
[[ ]]. One of these new C++11 attributes is[[noreturn]]. ...
By Blog Staff | Jul 18, 2013 05:07 PM | Tags: basics
Andrzej's title is not only catchy, but completely correct (we politely disagree with your final disclaimer, sorry Andrzej): Deterministic lifetime with destructors is C++'s best feature, and very underappreciated. Like most wonderful things, you appreciate it most when it's gone, namely when you're using another language where it's absent.
C++'s best feature
by Andrzej Krzemieński
From the article:
C++, if you want to learn all of it, is big, difficult and tricky. If you look at what some people do with it, you might get scared. New features are being added. It takes years to learn every corner of the language.
But you do not need to learn all of it. Effective use of C++ requires only the knowledge of a couple of its essential features. In this post, I am going to write about one C++ feature that I consider one of the most important. The one that makes me choose C++ rather than other popular programming languages. ...
By Blog Staff | Jul 17, 2013 01:55 PM | Tags: basics
Koenig explains std::move as, well, just a bit of a fib, really:
Sometimes You Must Violate an Abstraction to Maintain It
by Andrew Koenig
From the article:
What
std::movereally does is to return its argument as an rvalue reference. In effect, every time we usestd::move, we are telling a lie. In this case, by writingstd::move(t.s), we are saying that we want to uset.s, but to do so in a way that treatst.sas an rvalue. It is acceptable for us to tell this lie for exactly the same reason that it is acceptable for us to castt.stostring&&in the previous example: We know thatt.sis a member oft, andtreally refers to an rvalue in our caller's context.We can tell such lies any time we are willing to take responsibility for the consequences. ...
By Blog Staff | Jul 15, 2013 04:18 AM | Tags: basics
Recently at Dr. Dobb's:
How the C++ Compiler Decides to Move Objects
by Andrew Koenig
From the article:
After reading this post, you should be able to figure out what
std::movedoes, although not necessarily how it does it...
By Blog Staff | Jul 13, 2013 04:59 PM | Tags: intermediate basics
C++14 is still very much a draft -- it only became feature-complete in April and is now in its primary comment ballot. But interest in this new standard is high, with a restarted "Guru of the Week" series focusing on C++14 and now Scott Meyers has produced the first book-like materials that include significant coverage of C++14.
C++11 Training Materials Updated -- Now With C++14 Info!
For the seventh time since originally releasing them over three years ago, I've updated my annotated training materials for "The New C++". Until this update, "the new C++" referred to C++11, but with this revision, I'm including treatment of several features from draft C++14 that I believe will make it into the new new standard. As far as I know, this makes my training materials the first "book-like" publication that covers features in C++14.
By Blog Staff | Jul 11, 2013 05:33 AM | Tags: intermediate
Readers ask:
What are “rvalue references for *this” for?
What are the most typical use cases of "rvalue references for
*this" which the standard also calls reference qualifiers for member functions?By the way, there is a really good explanation about this language feature here.
