cpp.chat

Latest Episodes:

My Friends Call Me Bool Jun 21, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with a vector-of-bool (a.k.a. Colby Pike).

We talk about pseudonyms, modules, build systems and his standard layout proposal, Pitchfork. At the last minute we branch into TDD and what makes good design.

But what prompts Michael Caisse, in the chat, to respond, "because we are not monsters", and why does that cat say "test first"?

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It Doesn’t Get Bored and It Doesn’t Get Tired May 26, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with a Yuri Minaev, of PVS Studio, about static analysis - and why you shouldn't be skipping on this essential part of software development.

Why is using a static analysis tool better than peer review (the clue is in the title)? Should you do both? What is the most common bug? And what does happen if you write to address zero?

We also discuss the billion dollar mistake and the perils of copy & paste (and how you can mitigate them).

All in all, a step towards safer coding.

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Evaluate PVS-Studio- with promotion discount for cpp.chat listeners

The Problem Is, They Expect Answers May 10, 2020

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This week we chat with a panel of C++ trainers from around the world (but mostly from Germany, for some reason) - Nicolai Josuttis, Jason Turner, Rainer Grimm, Klaus Iglberger and Mateusz Pusz.

We talk about how bringing in a good trainer will keep your costs down, whether online training works or not, and why C++ is different to most other languages when it comes to training.

One of our guests reveals that he has had, and has recovered from, COVID-19 - but who?

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Willing to Steal Good Ideas Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with Bryce Adelstein Lelbach about how the ISO C++ WG21 committee is evolving - and his roles within it (and beyond) are evolving, too.

We also look at the cross-over and interaction with the C standard, and even other languages. Is C really the Latin of programming languages? What is the relationship between the languages and the committees at this point? And why did so many committee members agree to a plan that contains items they may not be interested in?

And what happened to the Varna meeting, anyway?

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We’re Not Going to Allow You to Throw 💩 Anymore Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with five members of the SG16 Unicode Study Group, Zach Laine, Tom Honermann, Steve Downey, Peter Brett and Corentin Jabot.

We talk about their efforts to get all things Unicode into the C++ standard in a tour that takes us from 5000 years ago, through the 80s and 90s up to the 2020s! We look at every known language, including a few dead ones - and some that are purely fictional.

Do you know the difference between a code unit and code point? A glyph and a grapheme cluster? String a Text? And what's wrong with Locales anyway?

This show sorts it all out.

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Colour Is Not Black and White Mar 05, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with James Berrow about colo(u)r, and how we're doing it all wrong (and not just the spelling).

We look at why colour management is complicated, how RGB doesn't exist, and how everybody (well, almost everybody) gets it all wrong. We also look at the graphics proposal, and James' critique of it, as well as how he is working with the authors on some improvements.

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Ranting Is Optional Feb 26, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with JeanHeyd Meneide (A.K.A. ThePhD) about coming full circle on std::embed, as well as whether optional references should rebind or assign-through.

Packed with edge-of-the-seat stories of interesting proposals adventures through the standardisation process, as well as a decent amount of ranting.

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Copperspice Is Your Middle Name? Feb 05, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with Ansel Sermersheim and Barbara Geller about Copperspice, Doxypress, csLibGuarded and kitchen utensils.

We find out that Barbara and Ansel are not just library people but are actually programmers - and programmers that know how to build abstractions.

We chat about why they started CopperSpice, how it got it's name, and what else they've been working on.

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Set a Breakpoint in the Past Jan 17, 2020

Show notes

This week we chat with Greg Law about debugging and going back in time!

How do things change when we can wait for something to go wrong, then go back to any point in time and examine the program state, like The Matrix's "Bullet Time"? How is this even possible, and what challenges need to be overcome? We also answer that age old question: what's the first thing people ask for when you say you can give them a time machine?

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We Almost Always Get the Default Wrong Dec 19, 2019

Show notes

This week we chat with Vittorio Romeo about the pros and cons of backwards compatibility in C++, and his proposal to get the best of both worlds: Epochs.

As well as language compatibility, we also discuss ABI compatibility - why breaking these things is such a problem, but how not breaking them is increasingly becoming a problem.

We also, finally, get an answer to the age of question of, "how many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?"

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