CppCon 2021

C++ Modules were designed to bring more safety to your programs, while dramatically reducing compile time, resulting in overall increased productivity. How can your C++ toolchain meet this challenge? What can you do to take advantage of these new functionalities available in your toolbox? In this talk, we share lessons learned from implementing Modules based on the singular idea of providing robust support through the entire toolchain (from the lexer through the linker, the IDE, the build system, etc.), debunking the misconception that C++ Modules are just some syntactic sugar that is compiled away by the front-end. The challenges that any C++ compiler implementer faces include: (1) how to satisfy the requirements of merging materialization of declarations -- needed for sound handling of the global module fragments, in particular, as found in header files and header units – with associated performance cost; (2) how to take advantage of the One Definition Rule guarantees provided by named modules. They must address those challenges without compromising efficiency and static semantics. These lessons are valuable not just to C++ tools developers, but to ordinary C++ programmers as well, shedding light on how speed and safety gains are achieved by staying close to the spirit of the original C++ Modules design (“take the ODR as foundational”), and how you can put them to good use in the architecture of your programs and libraries.

ALL TALK SESSIONS CAN BE ACCESSED FROM THE MAIN LOBBY: https://cppcon.digital-medium.co.uk/

At Bloomberg, we have thousands of independently maintained first- and third-party C++ projects built with CMake. One of the keys to achieving this scale, while also keeping engineers productive, has been leveraging one of the most underrated and underutilized features of CMake — its extensibility via its module system. Bloomberg utilizes dozens of single-purpose CMake modules to allow its tens of thousands of CMakeLists.txt files to stay declarative, flexible, future-proof, and simple -- all while using modern CMake principles!

This talk will cover what CMake modules are, how to write one using the latest CMake features, and how to package one for others to use. Importantly, this talk will also cover when *not* to write a CMake module.

If you find yourself wincing at all the repetitive boilerplate in the CMakeLists.txt across your projects, this is the talk for you!

ALL TALK SESSIONS CAN BE ACCESSED FROM THE MAIN LOBBY: https://cppcon.digital-medium.co.uk/

In this lecture, we will discuss some of the most painful issues faced by developers attempting to consume C++ libraries from a non-C++ application. These issues are typically first confronted by the non-C++ developer and then more experience interop stakeholders must be brought in. Issues arising during initial consumption are notoriously difficult to diagnose, debug, and understand often requiring some reverse engineering skills. This talk is designed around bridging the gap between C++ library author and the library consumer who is often not a C++ application developer.

ALL TALK SESSIONS CAN BE ACCESSED FROM THE MAIN LOBBY: https://cppcon.digital-medium.co.uk/