Meeting 1 February 2018
Congratulations to Bjarne!
Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup Named Recipient of the 2018 IEEE-CS Computer Pioneer Award
This award is given for significant contributions to early concepts and developments in the electronic computer field, which have clearly advanced the state-of-the-art in computing. Stroustrup is being recognized “for bringing object-oriented programming and generic programming to the mainstream with his design and implementation of the C++ programming language.”
Reddit: Why should I learn C++ in 2018?
Twitter: Remove one C++ feature?
Jason Turner (@lefticus) 29/01/2018, 18:24: You can remove exactly one feature from C++. Which one and why?
Ólafur Waage (@olafurw): The damned int/char fallback for types. I want to not compare apples with oranges. The ability to skip {} on 1 line if/while/etc, so bug prone on large projects. For std, redo the entire getline or read from input system, it’s a huge hurdle for new programmers.
Simon Brand (@TartanLlama): iostreams. Replace with something less noisy and more performant.
Matt Calabrese (@CppSage): ADL. How to properly call a function is so subtle, especially in a template, that basically no one does it correctly.
Björn Fahller (@bjorn_fahller): Lossy implicit conversions
Victor Ciura (@ciura_victor): const should be the default for all types (built-in and user defined) and you should opt in for mutability with a storage qualifier like mutable. And as long as we’re on the subject, why not constexpr by default for all expressions?
Patricia Aas (@pati_gallardo): Don’t know if it’s considered a feature but : signed integer overflow being Undefined Behavior, couldn’t we just wrap? This is a trap waiting for a beginner imo
Jason Turner (@lefticus): I just saw a comment on this, but cannot find it now. Seems the problem is that 1’s complement, 2’s complement or sign bit is not specified in the standard, so no way to specify signed overflow, without requiring a specific representation first.
Unreal_Skif (@Unreal_Skif): C preprocessor
Jan Wilmans (@janwilmans): what i’d really like is to be able to subset the language by --disable-feature=Xxx so I can opt-out on all the old stuff for new development
Joseph Hurtado (@josephhurtado): Multiple inheritance.
Nicholas Gildea (@ngildea85): Backwards compatibility with previous versions. Clean break to tidy up & streamline existing features (e.g. make features part of the language not standard lib). If that’s not cheating ;)
Corentin (@Cor3ntin): can I say Macros?
@science_dot: Everything that is only there to make C89 code valid C++ code. C++ isn’t a superset of C anymore and everything that results from programmers thinking this way is bad.
John Schroedl (@fourbadcats): unsigned size_t. Avoid all those casts to shut the compiler up. Signed/unsigned bugs
Oliver Seiler (@oseiler): C-style casts. I really want people to have to type a lot to abuse the type system.
Michał Dominiak (@Guriwesu): C.
Reddit: Which C++ features should be considered legacy?
rand()andsrand()– use<random>- Raw owning pointers
std::bind– use lambdastypedef– useusing- RTTI
- “The entire C library, C-style arrays and casts, non-RAII resource management, digraphs, goto, new, delete. Personally I’d add octal numbers as well, but maybe that’s just me.”
auto_ptrvector<bool>
Twitter: One thing about C++
Jason Turner (@lefticus): You have the opportunity to tell someone 1 thing about C++. What would it be? What’s the most important thing you’d want to communicate?
Ciro Duran (@chiguire): You know the exact moment that an object is destroyed
Matt Bentley (@xolvenz): Here is the rabbit hole. Somewhere, near the bottom, is performance. There are many stones in the way. Don’t let them stop you. Start digging.
Jan Wilmans (@janwilmans): C++ is not as hard is it is made out to be. Also it is getting easier over time.
Octavio Cruz (@OctavioCruz): Embrace RAII
Laurie Hedge (@lauriehedge): C++ isn’t an OO language, or a low level language. It’s a multi-paradigm language, meaning it gives you the tools you need for the job in hand. If something seems hard, explore the language and see if you can’t use another tool it provides.
pmf (@pmf): Run if you can.
enrabiar (@enrabiar): C++ programming can be anything but boring
Alex Khanin (@twiz718): auto and lambdas
Billy O’Neal (@MalwareMinigun): Destructors.
Nikos Chantziaras (@realnc): You get paid more.
Kate Gregory (@gregcons): That it is not what you remember it to be
Silva Puth (@silva_puth): C++ is one de-facto package manager away from being widely adopted by modern open source developers.
Florian (@badbadc0ffee): Don’t try to manually optimize your code. Try to write well understandable code that you and your peers can easily read and comprehend, your compiler will optimize better than you ever could - most of the times. Check out http://godbolt.org if you don’t think so.
Nicolai Josuttis (@NicoJosuttis): C++ is a very helpful nightmare
Tony Van Eerd (@tvaneerd): The type system can greatly increase your odds of writing correct code.
Victor Ordu (@BroVic): Modern C++ is several languages rolled up in one. Make your pick per time.
Adi Shavit (@AdiShavit): Strongly typed compile-time superpowers.
Dominik Haska (@DominikHaska): Moore has ended. C++ is back.
C2 Language
“The C programming language has been around for a long time and is still used a lot nowadays. The core of the language is very solid, but other aspects are showing their age. C2 attempts to modernize these parts, while keeping the feel of C. It should be seen as an evolution of C.”
Understanding the C11/C++11 memory model
Using Units, Quantities, and Dimensions in C++14 - Peter Sommerlad [ ACCU 2016 ]
- Boost.Units: Pre-C++11 design using macros and Boost.MPL
- Very flexible
- Compile-time checking (but error messages are terrible)
- Supports many base unit systems
- PhysUnit-CT-Cpp11 (GitHub)
- C++11, C++14, header only
- Uses SI as the base system
- Supports dimensional analysis
Twitter: prefix vs. postfix operators
Tony Van Eerd (@tvaneerd): I’ve only been programming C++ for 20 years, how am I supposed to remember operator++() vs. operator++(int) - which one is which?
Jason Turner (@lefticus): In my head operator++() is the one you “should” use and operator++(int) is the “special one”
Johnny T (@FrogShadeGarden): My way of remembering - the one you’re supposed to use more often is the one that’s easier to declare
Tony Van Eerd: That might work, particularly when combined with my preference for post++, and my general cynicism
Tim M (@schmerg): Very useful interview question: if anyone ever asks you this, your answer should be “oh FFS who cares, we google that”, and if they don’t immediately reply “THAT, my fine friend, is the CORRECT answer”, stand up and walk out (~25 years myself)
Marshall Clow (@mclow): Look at someone else’s code ;-)
Matt Godbolt (@mattgodbolt): I’m so glad it’s not just me
Miro Knejp (@mknejp): Some things are simply beyond the capacity for comprehension of finite, mortal brains.
Data-oriented design
Insomniac Games C++ programming guidelines, by Mike Acton
- No exceptions
- No templates (“You can solve your problems better with a code generator instead”)
- No STL
- No multiple inheritance
- No operator overloading
- No RTTI
- Custom allocators
Audience: “Why not just use C? Why are you using C++”
[Mike Acton] Because of the culture: everyone is using C++ these days.
C++ and the culture of complexity
Google Abseil Tip of the Week
LibTom Crypto Libraries
Cheerp – C++ for the web
Compiles C++ to JavaScript and/or WebAssembly
RapidJSON
A fast JSON parser/generator for C++ with both SAX/DOM style API. Header-only, Unicode-friendly, BSD
Quote
Charles Stross “The Jennifer Morgue”:
Most demons are as dumb as a sackful of hammers. This does not mean they’re safe to mess with, any more than a C++ compiler is “safe” in the hands of an enthusiastic computer science undergrad.