CppDepend:

The new C++ standards must anticipate the coming AI tsunami.

The significant and rapid transformation driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology promise a very big AI tsunami that will change our life as developers. While the exact nature of these changes can vary depending on context and perspective, there are several broad trends and potential impacts that might be expected following such a transformative event:

C++ creator rebuts White House warning, but there’s no smoke without fire :)

In a March 15 response to an inquiry from InfoWorld, Stroustrup pointed out strengths of C++. “I find it surprising that the writers of those government documents seem oblivious of the strengths of contemporary C++ and the efforts to provide strong safety guarantees,” Stroustrup said.

And Stroustrup cited a fact about the origin of the issue :

There are two problems related to safety. Of the billions of lines of C++, few completely follow modern guidelines, and peoples’ notions of which aspects of safety are important differ.

This highlights a significant problem with C++. When any programming language permits the execution of potentially harmful actions, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a considerable portion of developers may misuse it.

And when confronted about writing bad code, developers may offer various arguments to justify their actions, though these are often excuses rather than valid reasons:

What attempts have been made to bring memory safety to C++?

C++ is a powerful and widely used programming language known for its flexibility and performance. However, one of its historical drawbacks has been the lack of built-in memory safety features, which can lead to various types of memory-related bugs such as buffer overflows, dangling pointers, and memory leaks.

This is a known issue that has persisted for decades, and numerous attempts have been made to find a solution. Unfortunately, none have succeeded.

What has been done in the past to enhance memory safety within the language?

Make your C++ code more safer by enabling the native compiler Runtime Checks.

Runtime checks in C++ refer to mechanisms or tools used to detect errors, vulnerabilities, or unexpected behavior in a program while it is executing. These checks are performed dynamically during runtime rather than at compile-time and can help identify issues that may not be apparent during static analysis or code review.

What about our emotional relationship with a specific programming language? C++ as example.

The emotional relationship between a developer and a programming language can be quite profound and personal, like to the relationship between a musician and his instrument. This relationship is shaped by various factors and experiences, leading to a complex mix of feelings and attachments.

Developers often feel a sense of comfort and familiarity with a programming language they have been using for a long time. They develop an intimate understanding of its syntax, semantics, and quirks, which can create a feeling of being “at home” when writing code. Emotional attachment to a programming language can fuel passion and motivation in developers. However, it can introduce some risks, like :

Even the White House wants you to abandon C and C++, It’s time to focus on C++ safety and join the Bjarne initiative.

The C and C++ languages are no longer favored by the highest American authorities. Indeed, the White House wishes for developers to use memory-safe languages. In this report published on Monday, the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) of the White House invites developers to reduce the risk of cyberattacks by using languages without memory vulnerabilities. IT companies “can prevent the introduction of multiple vulnerabilities into the digital ecosystem by adopting secure languages,” the presidency said in a statement. It refers to those that are protected against buffer overflow, out-of-bounds reads, and memory leaks.

Top 7 most used C++ idioms (Part2).

In the first part we discovered the RAII and Pimpl idioms, and in this second part, we will explore the CRTP, Copy-and-Swap, and Type Erasure idioms.

But before talking about these interesting idioms, let’s first discover the benefits of mastering C++ idioms and why it’s worth investing time to understand how they work:

Top 7 most used C++ idioms (Part1).

Idioms and design patterns are both common solutions to recurring problems in software development, but they differ in scope, granularity, and formality:

Scope:
- Idioms: Idioms are small, language-specific coding techniques or patterns that address specific programming challenges within a particular programming language. They often involve leveraging language features or conventions to achieve a desired outcome efficiently and effectively.
- Design Patterns: Design patterns are higher-level, language-agnostic architectural solutions to common design problems in software engineering. They provide general reusable templates for solving design issues and promoting best practices in software design.
Granularity:
- Idioms: Idioms tend to be more granular and focused on specific coding constructs or techniques within a single programming language. They often involve manipulating language features or syntax to achieve particular goals.
- Design Patterns: Design patterns are more comprehensive and deal with broader design concepts and relationships between components within a software system. They provide templates for organizing and structuring code at a higher level of abstraction.
Formality:
- Idioms: Idioms are typically informal and are commonly passed down through experience, code reviews, or programming literature within a specific programming community. They may not always have formal names or documentation.
- Design Patterns: Design patterns are more formalized and well-documented solutions to common design problems. They often have recognized names, descriptions, and implementation guidelines outlined in literature such as the Gang of Four (GoF) book “Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.”

Are you curious to know where the move feature is used in your C++ projects, on your behalf?

Move semantics is a feature introduced in C++11 that allows more efficient transfer of resources (such as dynamic memory) from one object to another. It addresses the inefficiencies associated with deep copying objects, especially large ones, by allowing objects to “steal” the resources of other objects when possible, rather than duplicating them.

Before C++11, when you assigned one object to another, a copy constructor or assignment operator would be invoked, resulting in a deep copy of the object’s data. This process could be expensive, particularly for large objects or those containing dynamic memory allocations. This feature is particularly useful in scenarios where performance optimization is critical, such as in high-performance computing, game development, and resource-constrained environments.

Move semantics introduces the notion of “rvalue references” and a new concept called “move constructors” and “move assignment operators”.

Here’s how it works:

C++ is now a feature-rich language, Be aware of OverEngineering

Being aware of overengineering is crucial when working with a feature-rich language like C++. Overengineering occurs when developers introduce overly complex or unnecessary solutions to a problem.

C++ developers could be attempted to use as possible the new features introduced by the new standards. which makes the code finally more complicated than it must be.

Here’s an example to show how C++ metaprogramming can be used to create a type-erased container with arithmetic operations that are evaluated at compile time. While this example show the power and flexibility of C++ metaprogramming techniques. it might seem complicated due to the use of templates, concepts and constexpr functions:

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