Go to the Stroustrup's site, the page with the contents of his "C++ 4th ed" book contains even the full drafts of the "Tour of C++" part of the book.
Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
51–60 of 63 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who learn C++ this way tend to miss stuff out, I think - there are a lot of thing that you can just muddle your way though without really understanding. I'm sure there are some people that think this will be OK; after all, lots of people say you don't really have to understand templates unless you're writing a library (and so on). But I don't think it will be OK. There was very little in C++98 (that I knew wel…
unless you knew all of it, pretty much, you couldn't really use any of it safely. Thank you for perhaps the best summation of everything wrong with using C++ in a project, and everything wrong with C++ as a language!
i also disagree with that statement, while amusing, it's untrue. you can use C++ without the things I have mentioned quite safely. in fact the less features you use, the less they interact and the safer the whole experience is.
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#53Well at the risk of stating the obvious, there's a lot of armchair programmer style "read this", "watch this" instruction here. It's much better to do something concrete. Go and do a trivial project in it, cppreference.com and cplusplus.com have c++11 tags on the new features. I'm sure you've had ideas recently and I'm sure the project is less trivial than you thought! I think looking at language features first is "a…
I think you make a very valid point and I would agree to an extent. However I wouldn't discount the value in seeking to understand the personality and capabilities of a language as it evolves over time. I think of any language as another tool in my toolbox. The better I know a tool, the better I know when and how to apply it to a specific problem. I'd wager that just one trivial project won't fully demonstrate the pe…
absolutely, but I think acquiring knowledge by reading a 500 page book dutifully is a time sink. much better to get a touristic overview and solve actual problems rather than trying to get book smart.
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
unless you knew all of it, pretty much, you couldn't really use any of it safely. Thank you for perhaps the best summation of everything wrong with using C++ in a project, and everything wrong with C++ as a language!
i also disagree with that statement, while amusing, it's untrue. you can use C++ without the things I have mentioned quite safely. in fact the less features you use, the less they interact and the safer the whole experience is.
You know what we call (C++)--?
C.
:)
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#55You want even MORE features in C++?. You have made Stroustrup happy.
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#56Just read the new edition of C++ Programming language by Bjarne Stroustrup ;) Some things are hard to come by in any shorter sources. And at times you have to dig into the standard. An example of rather obscure thing in C++ which changed in C++11 (sequencing): http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/eval_order And another thing which can be pretty confusing without carefully reading the standard. Copy elision vs mo…
Not to be disrespectful- but I want to learn more about C++ from anybody but Stroustrup. His writing (to me at least) always has the aspect of "nothing is wrong, and every compromise was picked correctly." I'd much rather read somebody like Meyers who will actually warn you away from some mal-features. And C++ is so large you really want a useful editorial view to any teaching.
Scott's style is also to be quasi-entertaining. In my opinion he uses this style of pointing out the dark corners not to inform but to make the reader/listener feel a part of the "epic struggle" / journey dialogue. It seems to work quite well to sell books, consulting and as a pedagogical conceit and is worth emulating.
Bjarne has never had such pretense and his writing also reflects his personal style. And he will tell you quite honestly that some distasteful aspects exist because C++ was a language created to be used (backwards compatibility is a feature, adding keywords/syntax only when necessary, etc) not that "nothing is wrong."
Any rational discussion of programming languages is one of relative merits, applicability to specific problems, and personal prefs, rather than one of absolute truths.
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
cppreference.com is a good resource too. It's updated frequently. http://en.cppreference.com/w/
I can't stand that site. I try to use the old SGI stl reference whenever I can.
How is the reference for a library abandoned over 15 years ago even relevant? (other than when researching history)
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
i also disagree with that statement, while amusing, it's untrue. you can use C++ without the things I have mentioned quite safely. in fact the less features you use, the less they interact and the safer the whole experience is.
You know what we call (C++)--? C. :)
you should actually preincrement there to avoid the copy constructor, the correct formulations is (++C)--
Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#59Re: Ask HN: How to refresh on modern features of C++?
#60Take a look at Stephan T. Lavavej aka STL series at C9, http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/C9-Lectures-Stephan-T-Lavave...
Totally worthy.