Moving Up to Modern C++: An Overview of C++11/14/17

Key Learning Areas

Also covered are all of the language’s miscellaneous new convenience features and a look at some of the key new standard library components (smart pointers, tuples, new STL containers, std::function, type traits, etc.).

Course Outline

C++ Timeline

Goals for C++11/14

Part I: The Simpler Core Language Features

• • auto, decltype, trailing return types
  • Non-member begin()/end()
  • nullptr
  • Generalized function return type deduction (C++14)
  • auto vs. decltype(auto) (C++14)
  • Range for
  • >> in class template specializations
  • static_assert
  • extern template
  • noexcept
  • New initialization features
    • Initializer lists
    • Uniform initialization
    • Prevention of narrowing
  • Variadic templates
    • Fold expressions (C++17)
  • constexpr functions and data
  • Template alias
  • Variable templates (C++14)
  • The return of file scope static variables
  • Character- and String-related functionality
    • New unicode character types
    • String literals and const
    • Raw string literals
    • User-defined literals (UDLs)
  • inline namespaces
  • Attributes
  • Fixed-width integer types
  • New features of enums
    • Scoped enums
    • Specifying the underlying type
    • Forward-declared enums
  • long long
  • alignas / alignof
  • Generalized PODs
  • Binary literals (C++14)
  • Single quotes as digit separators (C++14)
  • Class template argument deduction (C++17)
  • Guaranteed copy elision (C++17)
  • Order of expression evaluation guarantees (C++17)
  • inline variables (C++17)
  • if constexpr (C++17)
  • Structured bindings (C++17)
  • New if and switch initializer syntax (C++17)
  • Nested namespaces (C++17)
  • Language features removed in C++17

Part II: Larger Language Features

• • Lambdas
    • Lambda expressions and closures
    • Capture modes
      • Avoid default capture modes
    • Lambdas as “local functions”
    • Generic lambdas (C++14)
    • Generalized lambda capture (C++14)
  • Move semantics
    • Lvalues and rvalues (the modern view)
    • Rvalue references
    • “move” operations
    • Reference collapsing and universal (“forwarding”) references
    • Perfect forwarding
    • When move-enable a type?
    • The Rule of 5

Part III: Features Supporting Better Class Design

• • Generated functions,  =default, =delete
  • Override control: override / final
  • Delegating constructors
  • Increased flexibility for in-class initializers
  • Inheriting constructors
  • Explicit conversion operators
  • Reference-qualified member functions

Part IV: Concurrency

• • Threads
  • join() and detach()
  • Passing arguments to threads
  • Data lifetime considerations
  • Synchronization with mutexes and locking
    • Avoiding deadlock
    • mutex and mutex-wrapper types
    • lock_guard, unique_lock and shared_lock
  • Returning values from threads
    • async()
    • Launch policies
    • Futures
    • Querying future status
  • Condition variables
  • Thread-local storage
  • Thread-safe block-scope static initialization
  • Atomics

Part V: New Library Components

• • std::tuple
  • Type Traits
    • Traits classes and tag dispatch
    • Standard type traits
    • std::enable_if
  • New Function/Function Object Facilities
    • std::function
    • std::bind
  • Smart Pointers
    • std::unique_ptr
    • std::shared_ptr
    • Custom deleters
    • std::weak_ptr
    • make_shared and make_unique
  • Fixed-length Array
    • std::array
  • Hash-based Containers
    • std::unordered_*
  • Performance enhancements
  • Library components removed in C++17

Epilogue: Is C++ Too Complicated?

References / Resources

Lab Exercises

• • New initialization rules
  • Lambdas
  • Performance characteristics of moving vs. copying
  • Implementing a variadic function template

Who Benefits

The presentation is designed for those who need a quick overview of the new C++, so the focus is on how to use the new language features and library components, where writing new code or migrating older C++ code to the Modern dialect.

Whenever practical, Modern C++ features are presented in a style showcasing how they contrast with and improve over their “Legacy” C++ counterparts.

Prerequisites

Attendees should have extensive prior development experience with C++98/C++03, including Standard Template Library components (standard containers, algorithms, iterators and function objects). A list of the specific STL components the course assumes familiarity with is available upon request.