Sqlpp11, An EDSL For Type-Safe SQL In C++

by Roland Bock

Most C/C++ interfaces to SQL databases are string based. Theses strings effectively hide expression structures, names and types from the compiler. And they are vendor-specific. And they defer expression parsing and validation until the test phase or (even worse) production...

Back to the Basics! Essentials of Modern C++ Style

by Herb Sutter

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

This talk revisits basic questions, such as how to declare and initialize a variable, how to pass a value to a function, how to write a simple loop, and how to use smart pointers, in the light of experience with C++11 and the latest C++14 refinements. This involves examining auto, rvalue references, range-for loops, uniform initialization, lambda expressions, unique_ptr and shared_ptr, and more.

Objects? No Thanks!

by Wouter van Ooijen

Micro-controller programming can benefit from compile-time polymorphism without paying a run-time price by using static class templates...

Paying for Lunch: C++ in the ManyCore Age

moderated by Herb Sutter, with Pablo Halpern, Jared Hoberock, Artur Laksberg, Ade Miller, Gor Nishanov and Michael Wong.

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Concurrency is one of the major focuses of C++17 and one of the biggest challenges facing C++ programmers today. Hear what this panel of experts has to say about how to write concurrent C++ now and in the future.

C++ on Mars: Incorporating C++ into Mars Rover Flight Software

by Mark Maimone

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

One of the more challenging aspects of developing flight software (FSW) for NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover was how to enable them to drive themselves safely through unknown Martian terrain. When the MER mission was approved in the year 2000, JPL researchers had already demonstrated that capability on prototype rovers [1] using software written primarily in C++ on a VxWorks realtime O/S platform with shared memory. So when asked to incorporate that capability into the MER vehicles which also relied on a similar VxWorks realtime O/S, the team concluded it would be safest and most expedient to incorporate the already field-tested C++ software. But that presented a challenge, since at that point all rover FSW development was mandated to be done mainly in the C programming language.

In this talk we present some of the challenges we faced and solutions we found in deploying C++ onto the Mars Rovers. For example, dynamic allocation was initially precluded, but development of a specialized memory allocator (using the C++ "placement new" operator) enabled us to incorporate it safely into the flight system. We will discuss what aspects of C++ were incorporated, what simulation environments aided development, describe some of the tools used to validate system behavior, and explain how our success using C++ for the implementation of autonomous navigation on MER has influenced future FSW efforts.

Interactive Metaprogramming Shell based on Clang

by Ábel Sinkovics

Developing metaprograms is hard and painful. Templight (http://plc.inf.elte.hu/templight/) supports the development and debugging of template metaprograms, but the code has to be recompiled after every minor change and tricks are needed to retrieve useful information about the result...

Data-Oriented Design and C++

by Mike Acton

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

The transformation of data is the only purpose of any program. Common approaches in C++ which are antithetical to this goal will be presented in the context of a performance-critical domain (console game development). Additionally, limitations inherent in any C++ compiler and how that affects the practical use of the language when transforming that data will be demonstrated.

Expression Templates Revisited

by Klaus Iglberger

Since their invention in 1995, Expression Templates (ETs) have proven to be a valuable tool for many C++ template libraries. Especially numerics libraries quickly embraced them as salvation for the performance deficiencies of standard C++. This reputation as performance optimization...

C++ SIMD parallelism with Intel Cilk Plus and OpenMP 4.0

by Georg Zitzlsberger

Performance is one of the most important aspects that comes to mind if deciding for a programming language. Utilizing performance of modern processors is not as straight forward as it has been decades ago. Modern processors only rarely improve serial execution of applications by increasing their frequency or adding more execution units.

Implementing Wire Protocols with Boost Fusion

There are a number of common serialization formats available which work well for marshaling C++ types into messaging protocols, e.g. ProtoBufs, Thrift, JSON, XML, FIX, etc. Unfortunately, not every protocol uses one of these popular encodings and instead implements a unique binary protocol. The classical "C" way of handling binary protocols is to use packed structs, unfortunately there are many binary protocols which are not particularly friendly to using this approach due to things like nested variable length data structures, etc.. The packed struct approach is also fairly limited in that it only generally supports primitive POD types.

This talk will explore an approach that uses Boost's Fusion library to implement an easily extensible serialization mechanism for on a non-trivial binary financial exchange protocol which exposes the underlying data in terms of "modern" C++ types. The talk will also cover aspects of general use of Boost Fusion and Boost MPL, type traits, enable_if, SFINAE, and other members of the C++ type system bestiary.