REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop) in C++: hands-on session

by Pascal Thomet

A Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL) enables to leverage very rapid and robust application development, prototyping and testing. This kind of development environment originates from the early days of functional programming (Lisp machines and the like), and is common in functional and scripting languages.

As a compiled language, C++ was out of the loop for a long time...

A Simple Timer in C++

by Jonathan Boccara

Some languages, such as JavaScript or Visual Basic, offer the feature of a timer, that is to say an object that calls some code at defined intervals. At the time of this writing (C++17) and to my knowledge, C++ doesn’t offer such a feature...

C++, C# and Unity

by Lucas Meijer

C++ is not great at this task. I want my loop to be vectorized, but a million things can happen that might make the compiler not vectorize it. It might be vectorized today, but not tomorrow if a new seemingly innocent change happens. Just convincing all my C/C++ compilers to vectorize my code at all is hard.

Did anybody consider adding a language pragma to C++?

For people who don't know, language pragmas are the way that ghc (Glasgow Haskell Compiler) allows you to turn on and off language features. In C++, this would mean that I can write something like:

#language <no_c_style_cast>

And that would disable C-style cast for that source file. Don't you think that it would be useful to standardize this to allow people to willingly disable some old legacy C++ features in newer code?

Boost 1.69.0

Notes for non-Windows users
The Boost build system now supports visibilities. If you are building shared libraries, they will use hidden visibility by default. As a result Boost shared libraries become smaller, load faster and have less chances to get a symbol collision.

See Boost.Build visibility and local-visibility for more info.

To disable that feature you can use use a command line ./b2 visibility=global to build...

C++Now 2019 Call for Submissions

The C++Now 2019 Call For Submissions is open! We invite all members of the C++ community, including first time submitters, to submit session proposals to the 8th annual C++Now Conference: C++Now 2018 (Aspen CO, USA, May 5 – 10, 2019).

C++Now builds upon the resounding success of previous BoostCon and C++Now conferences. We look forward to considering your proposals. You will be joining leading speakers from the entire C++ community in making C++Now 2018 better than ever.

Overload 148 is now available

Revolution, Restoration and Revival.
Trends cycle in seasons. Frances Buontempo wonders what programmers should on the lookout for.

Diseconomies of Scale.
Bigger is not always better. Allan Kelly considers when smaller is more productive.

Flip Model: A Design Pattern.
Publishing dynamic, complex data to many clients in a threadsafe manner is challenging. Daniele Pallastrelli presents the Flip model pattern to overcome the challenges.

Memory Management Patterns in Business-Level Programs.
There are many memory management patterns. Sergey Ignatchenko considers these from an application level.

Compile-time Data Structures in C++17: Part 3, Map of Values.
A compile time map of values allows code to be tested more easily. Bronek Kozicki demonstrates how to avoid a central repository of values.

Algol 68 - A Retrospective.
Algol 68 has influenced programming languages in many ways. Daniel James reminds us just how many.

Measuring Throughput and the Impact of Cache-line Awareness.
How do you measure throughput? Richard Reich and Wesley Maness investigate suitable metrics.

Using multi-stage containers for C++ development

by Marc Goodner

Containers are a great tool for configuring reproducible build environments. It’s fairly easy to find Dockerfiles that provide various C++ environments. Unfortunately, it is hard to find guidance on how to use newer techniques like multi-stage builds. This post will show you how you can leverage the capabilities of multi-stage containers for your C++ development. This is relevant to anyone doing C++ development regardless what tools you are using...

AI-Assisted Code Completion Suggestions Come to C++ via IntelliCode

by Nick Uhlenhuth

After reading and writing enough code, you begin to notice certain usage patterns. For example, if a stream is open, it will eventually be closed. More interestingly, if a string is used in the context of an if-statement, it will often be to check if the string is empty or if it has a certain size. You begin to identify and use these coding patterns over time, but what if Visual Studio already knew these common patterns and could suggest them to you as you code? That’s exactly what IntelliCode does...

Embedded systems: Bare metal programming

By Madrid C/C+

Acabamos el año con uno de los meetups más esperados de la temporada: sistemas embebidos. Nos adentramos en un terreno inexplorado por muchos de nosotros, pero que tienen gran relevancia en el mundo industrial: IoT, domótica, industria del automóvil,...