Modern C++: What You Need to Know -- Herb Sutter

By Blog Staff | Apr 4, 2014 11:09 AM | Tags: performance intermediate efficiency basics

A recording of yesterday's //build/ talk by Herb Sutter is now available on Channel 9:

Modern C++: What You Need to Know

by Herb Sutter

This talk will give an update on recent progress and near-future directions for C++, both at Microsoft and across the industry. This is a great introduction to the current state of the language, including a glimpse into the future of general purpose, performance-intensive, power-friendly, powerful native programming.

From the advance description on Herb's blog:

I was asked to give a "foundational talk" about C++, and I decided that meant I should focus on addressing two questions that I get a lot these days:

• FAQ #1 (1-2 slides): When should I use C++ compared to another language -- on all platforms in general, and on Microsoft platforms in particular?
• FAQ #2 (lots of slides): What should I know about C++ if I’m a {Java|C#|JavaScript|Python|...} developer?

Even if you're a seasoned C++ developer, there are some nuggets and data points in the middle of the talk that I think you will find useful in your own work...

Nugget: Multi-step iterators using coroutines -- Pubby

By Blog Staff | Apr 1, 2014 12:50 AM | Tags: intermediate

From the desk of an author going by the name Pubby, a nice short article showing off "yield return" using Boost's coroutines library:

Multi-step iterators using coroutines

by Pubby

Note: The short article is serious. The author's favorite image, maybe not so much.

C++ in the 21st Century -- Arvid Norberg

By Blog Staff | Mar 31, 2014 10:17 PM | Tags: intermediate c++11 basics

A recently posted talk by BitTorrent's chief architect:

C++ in the 21st Century

by Arvid Norberg

From the announcement:

In this edition of Tech Talks: an overview of some C++ gems. I threw this talk together because my team was about to start a new project in C++11. Since it’s fairly new, I figured some of it might not be as well-known as it should. Fundamentally, I’m pretty excited about all the new possibilities in C++11. Even higher-level abstractions, at even lower cost than C++98.

In the video below, we go over for-loops, automatic type deduction, lambda functions and more.

C++11/14 Standard & Standardization--Peter Sommerlad

By matt | Mar 21, 2014 08:33 AM | Tags: intermediate c++14 c++11 basics

Peter Sommerlad on C++11 and C++14 Standard(s) and Standardization:

Peter Sommerlad on C++11 and C++14 Standard(s) and Standardization

Created by Peter Sommerlad March 6, 2014

From the presentation:

Why is C++ in again?

• more computing per Watt!
  • mobile - battery powered
  • servers - cloud computing
  • high-performance computing & GPUs
• better abstractions than C
  • without performance price (e.g. of a VM)
  • embedded (higher-level type safety)
  • security (buffer overruns, pointers)

Slides (PDF)

Effective Modern C++ book status -- Scott Meyers

By Blog Staff | Mar 21, 2014 08:20 AM | Tags: intermediate basics

Scott Meyers' work on his new "Effective C++" book, tentatively titled Effective Modern C++, progresses with an updated draft table of contents and sample Item available:

Book Report: New Title, New TOC, New Sample Item

by Scott Meyers

Highlights from the article:

I recently finished the 32nd Item for the book, thus giving me drafts of five full chapters. The math still shows that about 40 Items will fit in the book's allotted 300 pages, so yesterday I took a hatchet to the prospective table of contents and chopped the number of Items down from 51 to 41. (Why 41? Because I have a feeling that one of the Items I've written will eventually get jettisoned as not being important enough to make the final cut.)  Here's the current draft TOC....

[Table of Contents -- read it, just the titles give useful guidance]

... The most recent Item I wrote was "Distinguish () and {} when creating objects." I blogged about one aspect of this topic here, and I thought you might be interested to see what I came up with. I've therefore made the current draft of this Item available, and I welcome your comments on it. Like almost all Items I've written, it's too long, so I'm especially interested in suggestions on how I can make it shorter, but I welcome all suggestions for improvement.

Upcoming Public Presentations by Scott Meyers

By Blog Staff | Mar 21, 2014 08:11 AM | Tags: intermediate

Scott Meyers has announced upcoming talks for 2014:

Upcoming Public Presentations

by Scott Meyers

2014 is shaping up to be a year with more public presentations than usual. As always, you can find links to all my scheduled talks at my Upcoming Talks page, but here are the ones scheduled so far: ... there will be more to come.

Highlights from the article:

May 22, Menlo Park, CA, USA: "The Last Thing D Needs"

June 4, Oslo, Norway: "Effective Modern C++," "Type Deduction and Why You Care," "The Most Important Design Guideline," and "CPU Caches and Why You Care"

September 17, Pennsylvania, USA: "CPU Caches and Why You Care"

October 7-8, London, UK: Two-day "Effective C++11/14 Programming" seminar

String's Length -- Andrzej Krzemieński

By Blog Staff | Mar 20, 2014 02:13 PM | Tags: intermediate

Today from the desk of Andrzej:

String's Length

by Andrzej Krzemieński

From the article:

Let’s start with a small test. Is the invariant expressed with the following assertion correct?

void test_length(std::string const& s)
{
  assert(s.length() == strlen(s.c_str()));
}

It is not; otherwise I wouldn’t be mentioning this in the post; but do you know why it is wrong? ...

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

By Blog Staff | Mar 18, 2014 04:00 AM | Tags: performance parallelism intermediate experimental efficiency cppcon concurrency c++14 c++11 boost basics advanced

The Standard C++ Foundation is very pleased to announce the first annual CppCon.

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.

Looking at C++14

By Meeting C++ | Mar 16, 2014 06:13 AM | Tags: standardization intermediate experimental c++14

A few weeks ago the C++ committee did meet in Issaquah, its most important result: the final draft for C++14. See Herb Sutters trip report for details, I have written an overview based on his trip report, clangs C++14 status page and of course the papers it self.

Looking at C++14

by Jens Weller

From the Article:

As I have read through most papers of last and this year, a short overview which papers now have made it into the standard. So, what are the new features of C++14? Already before the last meeting, clang had implemented all known C++14 features of the draft published after the Chicago meeting.

Fun with Lambdas: C++14 Style (Part 1) -- Sumant Tambe

By Blog Staff | Mar 13, 2014 06:24 AM | Tags: intermediate functional c++14

A rapid-fire "now write this using lambdas" problem-solution drill with Sumant Tambe:

Fun with Lambdas: C++14 Style (Part 1)

by Sumant Tambe

From the article:

It's common knowledge that Functional Programming is spreading like a wildfire in mainstream languages. Latest promoted languages: Java 8 and C++, both of which now support lambdas. So, let the lambdas begin! and may the fun be ever on your side. The same text is available in slides form on Slideshare. This blog post and the talk/slides are inspired by JSON inventor Douglas Crockford.