basics

CppCon 2014 Registration Open: September 7-12, Bellevue, WA, USA

cppcon-173.PNGThe Standard C++ Foundation is very pleased to announce the first annual CppCon.

cppcon-logo.PNG

Registration is now open for CppCon 2014 to be held September 7–12, 2014 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, USA. The conference will start with the keynote by Bjarne Stroustrup titled "Make Simple Tasks Simple!"

CppCon is the annual, week-long face-to-face gathering for all C++ users. The conference is organized by the C++ community for the community. You will enjoy inspirational talks and a friendly atmosphere designed to help attendees learn from each other, meet interesting people, and generally have a stimulating experience. Taking place this year in the beautiful Seattle neighborhood and including multiple diverse tracks, the conference will appeal to anyone from C++ novices to experts.

What you can expect at CppCon:

  • Invited talks and panels: The CppCon keynote by Bjarne Stroustrup will start off a week full of insight from some of the world’s leading experts in C++. Still have questions? Ask them at one of CppCon’s panels featuring those at the cutting edge of the language.
  • Presentations by the C++ community: What do embedded systems, game development, high frequency trading, and particle accelerators have in common? C++, of course! Expect talks from a broad range of domains focused on practical C++ techniques, libraries, and tools.
  • Lightning talks: Get informed at a fast pace during special sessions of short, less formal talks. Never presented at a conference before? This is your chance to share your thoughts on a C++-related topic in an informal setting.
  • Evening events and “unconference” time: Relax, socialize, or start an impromptu coding session.

CppCon’s goal is to encourage the best use of C++. The conference is a project of the Standard C++ Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to support the C++ software developer community and promote the understanding and use of modern, standard C++ on all compilers and platforms.

C++ and the Google Summer of Code

I wrote an overview over this years Google Summer of Code and C++

C++ and the Google Summer of Code

by Jens Weller

From the Article:

During the last few weeks I got interested in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC), as I did read some emails on the boost mailing lists about it. The Google Summer of Code is for a lot of open source projects an important opportunity to improve and extend their code base, and in 2014 it happens for the 10th time!

C++ Now 2014 sold out in under a month

cppnow14-soldout.pngAs interest in C++ keeps rising, there are more C++ events but they are also selling out faster. C++ Now 2013, Going Native 2013, and C++ and Beyond 2013 all sold out, some six months before the event.

Now C++ Now 2014 has sold out faster than last year -- this time it sold out in less than a month since registration opened, with over three months left to go.

The good news: You can still register to get on the waiting list, and if you act now there's a good chance you can still get a seat. Each year there will be some number of cancellations, and the organizers expect to be able to take a number of people on the waiting list.

If you have not yet registered for C++ Now 2014 but are interested in potentially going, even if you're not certain yet you should join the waiting list today to get in the queue for a chance to sign up for the last few seats that will open up!

 

If you missed registering for C++ Now and don't make the waiting list, don't despair -- there will be additional major C++ events around the world later this year. Watch for upcoming announcements here on isocpp.org. Stay tuned...

Quick Q: What do braces mean as a function argument? -- StackOverflow

Quick A: Something cool and convenient -- you can construct a temporary variable of the parameter type without having to repeat the type.

From SO:

C++ 11 Curly Braces

I haven't used C++ for a good few years, and have just come across this:

program.build({ default_device })

The definition is:

cl_int build(
    const VECTOR_CLASS<Device>& devices,
    const char* options = NULL,
    void (CL_CALLBACK * notifyFptr)(cl_program, void *) = NULL,
    void* data = NULL) const

What are the curly braces there for? I have never seen them used in a function call like this before. I assume it has something to do with the function pointer, but that seems optional?

C++ User Group Meetings in February

February will be a month full of C++ user group meetings:

C++ User Group Meetings in February

by Jens Weller

From the article:

There are a few new user groups, some of them even will meet in February for the first time. There is now a russian C++ users group organizing Meetings in St. Peterburg and Moscow. In Germany, the C++ user group Munich has met in January for the first time, with over 50 people attending the first meeting. In February the user groups of Aachen and Dortmund will meet for the first time. And, already meeting last year for the first time, there is now a dutch C++ user group!

Quick Q: Is pass-by-value-and-then-move a bad idiom? -- StackOverflow

Quick A: It's a good style by default when you know you'll keep a copy of the parameter anyway. If you have an expensive-to-move type or otherwise want additional control, you can overload on &/&& or else perfect-forward.

Recently on SO:

Is the pass-by-value-and-then-move construct a bad idiom?

Since we have move semantincs in C++, nowadays it is usual to do

void set_a(A a) { _a = std::move(a); }

The reasoning is that if a is an rvalue, the copy will be elided and there will be just one move.

But what happens if a is an lvalue? It seems there will be a copy construction and then a move assignment (assuming A has a proper move assignment operator). Move assignments can be costly if the object has too many member variables.

On the other hand, if we do

void set_a(const A& a) { _a = a; }

There will be just one copy assignment. Can we say this way is preferred over the pass-by-value idiom if we will pass lvalues?

Quick Q: Why prefer making shared_ptrs via make_shared? -- StackOverflow

Quick A: Because it's more efficient, since it can eliminate an additional allocation.

Recently on SO:

Difference in make_shared and normal shared_ptr in C++

std::shared_ptr<Object> p1 = std::make_shared<Object>("foo");
std::shared_ptr<Object> p2(new Object("foo"));

Many google and stackoverflow posts are there on this, but I am not able to understand why make_shared is more efficient than directly using shared_ptr. Can someone explain me step by step sequence of objects created and operations done by both so that I will be able to understand how make_shared is efficient. I have given one example above for reference.