Video & On-Demand

Functional C++--Kevlin Henney

See the talk Kevlin Henney gave at the NDC this june:

Functional C++

by Kevlin Henney

What you will find in the video:

Functional C++? As opposed to what - dysfunctional? Well, kind of, yeah. Sure, in C++ the principal unit of composition is called a function, but that doesn't mean it's a functional language. And the idea of restricting mutability of state gets a nod with const, but it's a nod not a hug. And the STL shows influences of functional programming, although it falls short of being compositional. And, yes, sure, C++11 has lambdas, but then again, these days, who doesn't? Lambda calculus was invented in the 1930s.
This talk looks at how to express functional programming ideas in (post)modern C++ in a way that can be considered idiomatic to C++, rather than trying to use the power of overloading and metaprogramming to pretend C++ is Haskell or Lisp. In short, immutability beyond const and into shared and persistent data structures, concurrency beyond threading and locks, and thinking about functions as transformations and units of composition rather than actions.

CppCon 2014 Emscripten and asm.js: C++'s role in the modern web--Alon Zakai

Have you registered for CppCon 2015 in September? Don’t delay – Early Bird registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Emscripten and asm.js: C++'s role in the modern web

by Alon Zakai

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

All major web browsers are written in C++, but C++ is starting to fill an important role in web *content* as well: while JavaScript is the only standards-compliant language available to websites, compiling other languages to JavaScript has been shown to be practical and effective. This talk will explain how Emscripten, an LLVM-based open source compiler from C++ to JavaScript, lets you run a C++ codebase on the web at near-native speed. To achieve that level of performance, Emscripten emits asm.js, a strict subset of JavaScript that is easy for JavaScript engines to optimize, and was designed specifically as a compilation target for languages like C and C++. We'll also discuss some of the more challenging aspects of compiling C++ to JavaScript, stemming from the C++ language itself, libraries and toolchains, and some thoughts on possible solutions.

CppCon 2014 What the committee did next!--Alisdair Meredith

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While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

What the committee did next!

by Alisdair Meredith

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

Now that C++14 is done, what is the standard committee working on next?

After inking 8 years to produce the C++11 standard (arguably 13) there was a feeling we should be able to produce new work faster, more incrementally. With the renewed interest in C++, we have more participation on the committee, and have looked to harness that enthusiasm in new ways. In the last 3 years we have spun up at least a dozen new study groups, and have 8 or mode Technical Specifications in various stages of development that we hope to ship over the next 12-24 months. So what are all these new groups and specifications about? Come to this session and get a vision of where C++ is headed in the immediate and short-term future.

CppCast Episode 17: Exercism.io and Refactoring with Richard Thomson

Episode 17 of CppCast the only podcast by C++ developers for C++ developers. In this episode Rob and Jason are joined by Richard Thomson to discuss exercism.io and C++ refactoring tools

CppCast Episode 17: Exercism.io and Refactoring with Richard Thomson

by Rob Irving and Jason Turner

About the interviewee:

Richard Thomson is a passionate software craftsman. He has been writing C programs since 1980, C++ programs since 1993 and practicing test-driven development since 2006. For 10 years, Richard was a Microsoft MVP for Direct3D, Microsoft's native C++ API for 3D graphics. His book on Direct3D is available as a free download. Prior to that, Richard was a technical reviewer of the OpenGL 1.0 specification. He is the director of the Computer Graphics Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah and currently works at DAZ 3D writing 3D modeling software in C++. Recently, Richard has added the C++ language track to exercism.io and has been working on adding refactoring tools to the clang tool suite.

CppCon 2014 Parallelizing the Standard Algorithms Library--Jared Hoberock

Have you registered for CppCon 2015 in September? Don’t delay – Early Bird registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Parallelizing the Standard Algorithms Library

by Jared Hoberock

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

Until recently, C++ programmers building parallel programs found little support for parallelism in the standard toolbox. That's changing with the technical specification on Extensions for Parallelism in C++. This talk will explore how programmers can build portable parallel programs from high-level parallel algorithms which can execute on CPU threads, vector units, and even GPUs.

CppCon 2014 The Implementation of Value Types--Lawrence Crowl

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While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

The Implementation of Value Types

by Lawrence Crowl

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

Predefined value types are central to C++ efficiency and robustness. More importantly, C++ provides mechanisms that enable programmers to create high-quality value types, programmers are not limited to the small predefined value types. However, implementing a high-quality type requires attention to several problems, among them portability, representation, efficient copying, efficient parameters, aliasing, constant initialization, and constant expressions. We present the issues and several approaches to implementing high-quality value types.

CppCon 2014 Multiplatform C++--Edouard Alligand

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While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Multiplatform C++

by Edouard Alligand

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

C++ is a multiplatform language, yet many difficulties arise when you want the same code to compile properly and function identically on different platforms. If you put aside the obvious system programming related obstacles, and the differences you might have between compilers (especially when it comes to supporting C++11 and C++14), you come to the surprising conclusion that what is truly hard is all the "little things" you didn't anticipate.

This talk will be about our experience with our own software, quasardb, that runs every day on three OS (FreeBSD, Linux and Windows), is built with three compilers (clang, gcc and msvc) and supports two architectures (IA32 and AMD64).

How to build natively the same software on Windows and Linux, provided that they have radically different tool chains? How to work around the subtle, but existing differences between Linux and FreeBSD? How do you solve cross-tools, cross-platform file editing problems? How to prevent your maintenance costs from increasing dramatically?

CppCon 2014 Making C++ Code Beautiful--James McNellis & Kate Gregory

Have you registered for CppCon 2015 in September? Don’t delay – Early Bird registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

Making C++ Code Beautiful

by James McNellis & Kate Gregory

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

Ask a non-C++ developer what they think of C++ and they'll give the language plenty of compliments: powerful, fast, flexible, and "the language for smart people". But along with that you are likely to hear ugly, complicated, hard to read, and "the language for smart people". Is it possible to write beautiful C++? Not arcanely elegant or wickedly compact, but readable, clear, expressive - beautiful! We say it is, and we want to show you how.

In this session, you'll see how to turn pages of "comic book characters swearing" into code you'll be proud to call your own. By making your code express your intent, using the power of new language and library functionality, and leaving hard-to-read constructs out of your vocabulary, you can give your code a makeover that will stand the test of time.

CppCon 2014 How to call C libraries from C++--Lisa Lippincott

Have you registered for CppCon 2015 in September? Don’t delay – Early Bird registration is open now.

While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2014 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

How to call C libraries from C++

by Lisa Lippincott

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

Many libraries used by C++ programs present C-like interfaces that are compatible with C++, but are not directly compatible with good C++ style. Using these libraries directly is error-prone in many of the ways C++ is designed to avoid. It is better to pass through an interface layer that presents good C++ style on the C++ side.

But writing such an interface layer is daunting. Completing it may be an enormous task, as are documenting it and maintaining it as the underlying library evolves. To address this problem, I will present a style of writing such interfaces that can be used incrementally as needed, and that reduces documentation cost. I will also present a small library that supports the writing of interface layers in this style.