Ask HN: Best way to learn modern C++?

The last generations of Oberon OS had support for video editing applications as an example.

There are real time GC applications in production being used to control weapons systems, including live targeting and soft real time factory automation systems.

Regarding D, using @nogc or -vgc allows the developer to control when the GC works, it at all. What the language lacks is a GC that can match real-time GCs used in soft real time systems.

Same. And I think you articulated the specific concerns I have about just learning the "modern" version.

It would certainly lower the barrier to entry in learning C++ if this was an unfounded concern.

C++ has some 35 year of history and changes at this point. This point alone adds(for me anyway) to the perceived cognitive load of learning it. C also has a similar length of history but it is a much smaller language.

1: Experimental, throw-away code: online IDEs or Godbolt if I care about compiler output. You would be surprised how much mileage you can get out of a simple online IDE when you are just learning or exploring a new thing and don't care about preserving your work.

2: Single-file code or small multi-file projects with no dependencies (like exercises or code samples from a book): direct calls to clang++/g++ in the command prompt or a simple build.sh shell script when I have to build multiple files. Make is a fantastic tool for this so you can learn and use that instead. I would actually encourage beginners to play directly with the compiler and learn the basic flags though, but this is personal preference.

3a: Personal projects that pull in other dependencies (either system wide or libraries from github or other sources): Make or cmake would probably work here equally well. I actually prefer cmake for its find_package and external project functionality. Notice the jump in complexity from 2 to 3, this is something you have to deal with and eventually you will have to pick a build tool and learn it.

3b: After learning to use Bazel I have mostly migrated to it for all my personal projects, but there was an initial learning curve for sure (not worse than cmake though).

4: At work: Whatever your company/team/group uses, you will most likely have little input on this if the codebase is old and established.

If you are in Windows you can use vanilla Visual Studio C++ (Community edition is free and has all the bells and whistles) for 1-3, or use Visual Studio + cmake (you can generate VS solution files from cmake).

A lot of the C++ language is sort of experimental. Sometimes features get thrown in and then deprecated and/or taken out, like the "export" keyword for templates, or throw specifications. Most programmers have strong opinions about which C++ features are bad. But that's all they are-- opinions. The C++ standard supports pretty much any way of doing things you could imagine-- async, sync, multiple inheritance, functional, you name it.

If you're a novice, my advice is to learn C really well. Then choose a C++ style guide and follow its recommendations closely.