Programming language trends come and go. First, Java is the hot new language, then it's Python, then Ruby steals the limelight, then it's back to JavaScript. But the latest language darling is probably the last one anyone expected. Believe it or not, 2011 could be the year of C++.Last week, the latest version of the ISO C++ Standard was approved by unanimous vote. It's the first major revision of the language in 13 years. Now officially known as C++11, the new standard introduces features designed to make it easier to develop software for modern parallel processing architectures, including lam...

After two months of Sol Trader development in Ruby, I took a difficult decision last Wednesday morning: I’ve decided to rewrite the game code from scratch in C++. Let me explain my reasons. If you'd like to receive announcements about Sol Trader or be part of the beta program, sign up at soltrader.net.Why I did itSlow frames: When working with Ruby, I use the excellent Gosu library to do all my game specific coding. This initially worked great, but occasionally I’d just get slow frames coming up. My game is timed to run at 60 frames per second, which means that each frame should...

It is Christmas over here, and it is time of giving. So I decided to give something back to the community. I guess this is as old as web programming itself. Trying to create C++ web framework. If you search on the web, you can find dozen of guys that had exactly the same idea. I am not different. For one of the previous projects(discontinued now) I created simple web framework in C++. If you like to hack in C++, here it is. Code is provided as-is, as part of larger application. You can extract framework code itself, use only some portions of it, or use whole application, if you like. I do not ...

Probably everyone reading this has heard “functional programming” put forth as something that is supposed to bring benefits to software development, or even heard it touted as a silver bullet.  However, a trip to Wikipedia for some more information can be initially off-putting, with early references to lambda calculus and formal systems.  It isn’t immediately clear what that has to do with writing better software.My pragmatic summary:  A large fraction of the flaws in software development are due to programmers not fully understanding all the possible states t...

In this interview, co-author of Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, 5th Edition Rogers Cadenhead discusses moving from Java to C++, what brought him to C++, and the best tactics for learning C++.Danny Kalev: For how long were you a Java programmer? Can you tell us a bit about the nature of the projects in which you took part at that time?Rogers Cadenhead: I've been a Java programmer since the language was launched by Sun Microsystems in 1995. I was doing website development, and Java applets were the first available platform for creating interactive programs that ran ...

A function is a group of related statements that accomplish a specific task. Understanding functions is a crucial step to programming in C++, as Brian Overland explains in this chapter from his book.The most fundamental building block in the programming toolkit is the function—often known as procedure or subroutinein other languages. A function is a group of related statements that accomplish a specific task. Once you define a function, you can execute it whenever you need to do so.Understanding functions is a crucial step to programming in C++: Without functions, it woul...

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. She wanted to try putting together a weekend "hackathon" just to see what we could build. It would be one of those fun things where we just start tinkering and see what comes out of it.Somehow, this conversation got to the topic of libraries, programming languages, and frameworks. Then it got a little weird.I guess the current "shiny" thing is still more-or-less Ruby, and particularly when used with Rails. Oh, I suppose there's also the whole node thing, in which you write things in Javascript and run them server-side with v8. ...

Brian Overland, long-time Microsoft veteran and author of C++ Without Fear: A Beginner's Guide That Makes You Feel Smart, 2nd Edition, shares 10 of his most hard-earned, time-saving insights from decades of writing and debugging C++ code.My first introduction to the C family of languages was decades ago (yes, I know this dates me horribly). Later I learned C++. I wish someone back then had steered me around the most obvious potholes; it might have saved me hundreds of frustrating hours.I can give you at least a few of those much-needed (excuse the term) pointers. This isn’t a tutor...