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C++ Questions and Answers -- Herb Sutter

By Blair Davidson | Nov 21, 2012 03:23 PM | Tags: None

This blog post was suggested by Blair Davidson. The video is from summer 2011, shortly before the C++11 standard was ratified:

Herb Sutter: C++ Questions and Answers

Jun 07, 2011

Herb's [previous] appearance on C9 was a relatively short chat with me about C++0x. You wanted more questions asked and some of you thought I was just too soft on Herb. Well, Herb decided that the best way to get the questions you want asked is, well, to have you ask them. Most of the highest user-rated questions were asked and Herb answers with his usual precision. So, without further ado, it's C++ question and answer time with Herb Sutter, powered by you.

Continue reading...

The Future of C++ -- Herb Sutter

By Blog Staff | Nov 3, 2012 08:29 AM | Tags: intermediate

Yesterday, many thousands of you were in the room or live online for Herb Sutter's talk, now available online:

The Future of C++

Herb Sutter
November 2, 2012

From Herb's video announcement summary:

This has been a phenomenal year for C++, since C++11’s publication just 12 months ago. And yesterday was a great day for C++.

Yesterday I had the privilege of announcing much of what Microsoft and the industry have been working on over the past year.

(minor) C++ at Microsoft

On September 12, we shipped VC++ 2012 with the complete C++11 standard library, and adding support for C++11 range-for, enum class, override and final. Less than two months later, yesterday we announced and shipped the November 2012 CTP, a compiler add-in to VC++ 2012 adding C++11 variadic templates, uniform initialization and initializer_lists, delegating constructors, function template default arguments, explicit conversion operators, and raw string literals. Details here, and download here.

Note that this is just the first batch of additional C++11 features. Expect further announcements and deliveries in the first half of 2013.

(major) C++ across the industry

Interest and investment in C++ continues to accelerate across the software world.

  • ISO C++ standardization is accelerating. Major companies are dedicating more people and resources to C++ standardization than they have in years. Over the next 24 months, we plan to ship three Technical Specifications and a new C++ International Standard.
  • C++ now has a home on the web at isocpp.org. Launched yesterday, it both aggregates the best C++ content and hosts new content itself, including Bjarne Stroustrup’s new Tour of C++ and Scott Meyers’ new Universal References article.
  • We now have a Standard C++ Foundation. Announced yesterday, it is already funded by the largest companies in the industry down to startups, financial institutions to universities, book publishers to other consortia, with more members joining weekly. For the first time in C++’s history since AT&T relinquished control of the language, we have an entity – a trade organization – that exists exclusively to promote Standard C++ on all compilers and platforms, and companies are funding it because the world runs on C++, and investing in Standard C++ is good business.

This is an exciting time to be part of our industry, on any OS and using any language. It’s especially an exciting time to be involved with C++ on all compilers and platforms.

Thank you all, whatever platform and language you use, for being part of it.

Links:

Core C++, 5 of N: Explicit and Partial Specialization -- Stephan T. Lavavej

By Blog Staff | Oct 27, 2012 07:44 PM | Tags: advanced

Core C++, 5 of N: Explicit and Partial Specialization -- Stephan T. Lavavej

Stephan T. Lavavej, aka STL, will take us on a journey of discovery within the exciting world of Core C++. We know lots of folks are either coming back to C++, coming to C++, or have never left C++. This lecture series, in n parts, is for all of you! Only STL can make that work (novice, intermediate, and advanced all bundled together and presented in a way only STL can do).

In Part 5, Stephan teaches us about Explicit and Partial Specialization of class and function templates.

From MSDN ->

Class templates can be specialized for specific types or values of the template arguments. Specialization allows template code to be customized for a specific argument type or value. Without specialization, the same code is generated for each type used in a template instantiation. In a specialization, when the specific types are used, the definition for the specialization is used instead of the original template definition. A specialization has the same name as the template of which it is a specialization. However, a template specialization can be different in many ways from the original template. For example, it can have different data members and member functions.

Use specialization to customize a template for a specific type or value. Use partial specialization when the template has more than one template argument and you only need to specialize one of them, or when you want to specialize behavior for an entire set of types, such as all pointer types, reference types, or array types.

// explicit_specialization1.cpp
// compile with: /EHsc
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Template class declaration and definition
template <class T> class Formatter
{
   T* m_t;
public:
   Formatter(T* t) : m_t(t) { }
   void print()
   {
      cout << *m_t << endl;
   }
};

// Specialization of template class for type char*
template<> class Formatter<char*>
{
   char** m_t;
public:
   Formatter(char** t) : m_t(t) { }
   void print()
   {
      cout << "Char value: " << **m_t << endl;
   }
};

int main()
{
   int i = 157;
   // Use the generic template with int as the argument.
   Formatter<int>* formatter1 = new Formatter<int>(&i);

   char str[10] = "string1";
   char* str1 = str;
   // Use the specialized template.
   Formatter<char*>* formatter2 = new Formatter<char*>(&str1);

   formatter1->print();
   formatter2->print();
}

Adventures in Perfect Forwarding--Scott Meyers

By Blog Staff | Oct 23, 2012 05:17 PM | Tags: advanced

From Scott Meyers' blog:

On Saturday, June 2, Facebook sponsored a one-day C++ conference and asked me (and others) to give a presentation.  I chose an abridged and updated version of a talk from C++ and Beyond 2011, "Adventures in Perfect Forwarding."  Judging by the dates on the comments below the video, it's been available since July, but I found out about it being online only today...

Read more at Scott's blog.

C++11 Style: A Touch of Class -- Bjarne Stroustrup

By Blog Staff | Oct 22, 2012 07:29 PM | Tags: intermediate basics

C++11 Style: A Touch of Class -- Bjarne Stroustrup

How do we write good code in idiomatic C++11? What principles, techniques, and idioms can we exploit to make it easier to produce quality code? In this presentation, I make an argument for type-rich interfaces, compact data structures, integrated resource management and error handling, and highly-structured algorithmic code. I illustrate my ideas and guidelines with a few idiomatic code examples.

I use C++11 freely. Examples include auto, general constant expressions, uniform initialization, type aliases, type safe threading, and user-defined literals. This presentation reflects my thoughts on what "Modern C++" should mean in the 2010s: a language for programming based on light-weight abstraction with direct and efficient mapping to hardware, suitable for infrastructure code.

Universal References in C++11 -- Scott Meyers

By Blog Staff | Oct 9, 2012 11:32 AM | Tags: intermediate advanced

Recorded live at C++ and Beyond 2012:

Universal References in C++11

Scott Meyers

Given that rvalue references are declared using "&&", it seems reasonable to assume that the presence of "&&" in a type declaration indicates an rvalue reference. That is not the case...

In this article, I describe the two meanings of "&&" in type declarations, explain how to tell them apart, and introduce new terminology that makes it possible to unambiguously communicate which meaning of "&&" is intended. Distinguishing the different meanings is important, because if you think "rvalue reference" whenever you see "&&" in a type declaration, you'll misread a lot of C++11 code...

Casablanca: C++ on Azure -- John Azariah and Mahesh Krishnan

By Blog Staff | Sep 19, 2012 02:55 PM | Tags: None

Casablanca is a Microsoft incubation effort to support cloud-based client-server communication in native code using a modern asynchronous C++ API design. Think of it as Node.js, but using C++ -- from simple services, to JSON and REST, to Azure storage and deployment, and more.

Casablanca gives you the power to use existing native C++ libraries and code to do awesome things on the cloud server. In this talk from TechEd Australia, John Azariah and Mahesh Krishnan show how it's done.

Core C++, 4 of N: Virtual Functions -- Stephan T. Lavavej

By Blog Staff | Aug 22, 2012 07:43 PM | Tags: basics

Core C++, 4 of N: Virtual Functions -- Stephan T. Lavavej

Stephan T. Lavavej, aka STL, will take us on a journey of discovery within the exciting world of Core C++. We know lots of folks are either coming back to C++, coming to C++, or have never left C++. This lecture series, in n parts, is for all of you! Only STL can make that work (novice, intermediate, and advanced all bundled together and presented in a way only STL can do).

In part 4, Stephan teaches us about Virtual Functions. In parts 1-3, we learned about compile-time constructs. Now, we enter the realm of runtime. STL spends some time discussing inheritance and a bit about access control.

Tune in. Learn.

"Panel: Static If, C++11, Modern Libraries, and Metaprogramming" -- Alexandrescu, Meyers, Sutter

By Blog Staff | Aug 21, 2012 07:50 AM | Tags: intermediate experimental advanced

The first panel from C++ and Beyond 2012 is now available on Channel 9:

On Static If, C++11 in 2012, Modern Libraries, and Metaprogramming

Andrei Alexandrescu, Scott Meyers, Herb Sutter

Channel 9 was invited to this year's C++ and Beyond to film some sessions (that will appear on C9 over the coming months!)...

At the end of day 2, Andrei, Herb and Scott graciously agreed to spend some time discussing various modern C++ topics and, even better, answering questions from the community. In fact, the questions from Niners (and a conversation on reddit/r/cpp) drove the conversation.

Here's what happened...

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