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Runtime-Compiled C++ -- "Edit and Continue"++ for MS VC++, gcc, Clang/LLVM

By Blog Staff | Mar 11, 2013 04:58 PM | Tags: intermediate

Very cool work:

Runtime-Complied C++ blog

This technique allows you to change your C++ code while it's running.

It uses no scripting, no VM, no external tools -- you can apply it to your own code and you can continue to use your favourite IDE. We think the quit-recompile-restart-reload cycle we're all used to could soon be a thing of the past.

If this is your first visit, watch the teaser video on the left.

If you want to know more, start here

dougbinks writes on the Reddit comment thread:

Compiling and loading code at runtime certainly isn't new, but what we're trying to do is develop a permissive open source portable and standard C++ solution which makes it easy to use. Cling is another similar project, but it uses compiler changes to LLVM so you need to use that compiler, whereas our solution requires only small changes to get it working with any compiler (currently supporting Visual Studio, gcc, clang/llvm).

What does std::function do that function pointers don't? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Mar 11, 2013 04:53 PM | Tags: intermediate

Quick A: A lot. They can bind to anything callable, not just functions. And they can perform conversions on parameter and return types.

Is there a use case for std::function that is not covered by function pointers, or is it just syntactic sugar?

The notation for std::function is quite nice when compared to function pointers. However, other than that, I can't find a use case where it couldn't be replaced by pointers. So is it just syntactic sugar for function pointers?

C++ to JavaScript with Emscripten

By Cyttorak | Mar 11, 2013 12:27 PM | Tags: intermediate advanced

Want to run your C++ code in a browser? Check out this project that converts LLVM bitcode to JavaScript™. From the project homepage:

Emscripten is an LLVM to JavaScript™ compiler. It takes LLVM bitcode (which can be generated from C/C++ using Clang, or any other language that can be converted into LLVM bitcode) and compiles that into JavaScript™, which can be run on the web (or anywhere else JavaScript™ can run).

Using Emscripten, you can

  • Compile C and C++ code into JavaScript™ and run that on the web
  • Run code in languages like Python as well, by compiling CPython from C to JavaScript™ and interpreting code in that on the web

They even have Qt demos running!

Continue reading...

The Importance of std::function -- Malte Skarupke

By Blog Staff | Mar 5, 2013 01:03 PM | Tags: intermediate

See also "Generalizing Observer", written ten years ago when std::function was first adopted.

The Importance of std::function

by Malte Skarupke

... Classically an update loop would be implemented something like this: ...

And this is a good solution at first. But you’ve got that inheritance in there, and that doesn’t scale. You will probably want to add a render loop and maybe a separate update loop for the editor. Once you’ve got that many base classes it makes sense to combine them into one. And now you’ve just started on the way of having a big base class that gets used everywhere. Soon enough adding something different to the update loop involves a whole lot of unnecessary work.

Here is an alternate update loop using std::function: ...

 

Registration open for C++ and Beyond 2013

By Blog Staff | Mar 1, 2013 03:06 PM | Tags: intermediate advanced

This just in on the C++ and Beyond blog... Scott Meyers writes:

Registration for C&B 2013 is open!

C++ and Beyond 2013 will take place December 9-12 at the Salish Lodge and Spa in Snoqualmie, Washington, USA (not far from Seattle). Registration is now open.

Attendance will be limited to 64 people.  (That’s the capacity of the ballroom.) Given that C&B has attracted about 100 people each year, it’s essentially certain that we’ll sell out.  As a result, I encourage you to sign up as soon as you can. Once we sell out, we’ll start a waiting list, but past experience suggests that we won’t be able to offer spots to more than a handful of people on that list.

Early bird registration runs through June 9 and features a 10% discount off the standard registration fee.

Click here to register.

Detailed information about C++ and Beyond is available at its web site:

Andrei and Herb and I hope to see you at C&B 2013 in December!

Scott

Image Watch: C++ image and video debugging plug-in for VS 2012

By Blog Staff | Feb 28, 2013 08:19 AM | Tags: intermediate basics

We continue to see modern C++ tool development across the industry continue apace. Here's another new cool C++-oriented tool with a nice seven-minute video on Channel 9:

Introducing Image Watch - A VS 2012 Plug-In for C++ Image and Video Debugging

Image Watch is a new Visual Studio 2012 plug-in for debugging C++ image and video processing applications, for example photo or augmented reality apps. Image Watch provides a watch window that can display in-memory bitmaps during debugging, so you no longer need to litter your code with "save-this-intermediate-image-to-a-file" statements when tracking down bugs. The initial release has built-in support for OpenCV image types and can be extended for viewing user-defined image types as well.

Here, Wolf Kienzle, Senior Research Developer, Interactive Visual Media group, Microsoft Research Redmond, explains and demos this excellent new tool for C++ developers building image, video or augmented reality apps. In effect, you can step into pixels...

Microsoft releases C++ REST SDK ("Casablanca")

By Blog Staff | Feb 26, 2013 06:02 PM | Tags: intermediate

From the announcement:

The C++ REST SDK (codename "Casablanca") has officially been released as an open source project on CodePlex...

We first announced Casablanca as an incubation project on Microsoft's DevLabs back in April of 2012. Since then we have had several releases and have seen library quickly evolve. As we added new features and received feedback from customers, it was evident that two separate entities were beginning to form. As a result, the "Casablanca" project on DevLabs has been separated into 2 different SDKs: the C++ REST SDK and the Azure SDK for C++.

The first of the two SDKs being released is the C++ REST SDK. It includes tools to quickly write modern, asynchronous C++ code that connects with REST services. We take advantage of the power and productivity offered in C++11 while providing a cross-platform solution. We currently support Windows 7, Windows 8 (Windows store and desktop applications), and Linux.

The main features in this SDK include:

  • Ability to create a connection to a server via a HTTP Client, send requests and handle response.
  • Support for construction and use of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI).
  • Constructing, parsing and serializing JSON values.
  • Asynchronously reading/writing bytes to/from an underlying medium via Streams and Stream Buffers.

Continue reading...

Quick Q: When should I use std::function vs. make my function a template? -- StackOverflow

By Blog Staff | Feb 21, 2013 09:25 AM | Tags: intermediate

To accept a functor as a parameter, when should you:

  • accept a std::function, which adds an indirection, vs.
  • make your function a template<class Func> and accept a Func, which can bind directly to whatever is passed?

std::function vs template

Thanks to C++11 we received the std::function family of functor wrappers. Unfortunately, I keep hearing [...] that they are horribly slow. [... Is the right recommendation] that functions can be used as de facto standard of passing functors, and in places where high performance is expected templates should be used?