Sutter’s Mill

Yesterday, many thousands of you were in the room or live online for my talk on The Future of C++. The talk is now available online.

This has been a phenomenal year for C++, since C++11’s publication just 12 months ago. And yesterday was a great day for C++.

Yesterday I had the privilege of announcing much of what Microsoft and the industry have been working on over the past year.

(minor) C++ at Microsoft

On September 12, we shipped VC++ 2012 with the complete C++11 standard library, and adding support for C++11 range-for, enum class, override and final. Less than two months later, yesterday we announced and shipped the November 2012 CTP, a compiler add-in to VC++ 2012 adding C++11 variadic templates, uniform initialization and initializer_lists, delegating constructors, function template default arguments, explicit conversion operators, and raw string literals. Details here, and download here.

Note that this is just the first batch of additional C++11 features. Expect further announcements and deliveries in the first half of 2013.

(major) C++ across the industry

Interest and investment in C++ continues to accelerate across the software world.

• ISO C++ standardization is accelerating. Major companies are dedicating more people and resources to C++ standardization than they have in years. Over the next 24 months, we plan to ship three Technical Specifications and a new C++ International Standard.
• C++ now has a home on the web at isocpp.org. Launched yesterday, it both aggregates the best C++ content and hosts new content itself, including Bjarne Stroustrup’s new Tour of C++ and Scott Meyers’ new Universal References article.
• We now have a Standard C++ Foundation. Announced yesterday, it is already funded by the largest companies in the industry down to startups, financial institutions to universities, book publishers to other consortia, with more members joining weekly. For the first time in C++’s history since AT&T relinquished control of the language, we have an entity – a trade organization – that exists exclusively to promote Standard C++ on all compilers and platforms, and companies are funding it because the world runs on C++, and investing in Standard C++ is good business.

This is an exciting time to be part of our industry, on any OS and using any language. It’s especially an exciting time to be involved with C++ on all compilers and platforms.

Thank you all, whatever platform and language you use, for being part of it.

Links:

• VC++ November 2012 CTP announcement
• Broad C++ news release covering the CTP, standardization, site, and Foundation
• My talk yesterday covering these announcements

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A few hours ago I sat down to give a short teaser for my webcast talk this Friday.

Here it is. Feel free to forward.

(I don’t think they believed me when I said I could keep it to under two minutes.)

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In my talk on Friday, there will be announcements of broad interest to C++ developers on all compilers and platforms. Please help spread the word.

The Future of C++

Friday, November 2, 2012
12:45pm (U.S. Pacific Time)

This talk will give an update on recent progress and near-future directions for C++, both at Microsoft and across the industry, with some announcements of interest in both areas. The speaker is the lead language architect of Visual C++ and chair of the ISO C++ committee.

The talk will be webcast live on Channel 9, and available soon afterwards on demand.

If you know people who are interested in C++, on any platform, you’ll want to let them know to tune in.

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Want to know how to write cool tablet apps using Visual C++?

On May 18, Microsoft is hosting a one-day free technical event for developers who want to write Metro apps for Windows 8 using Visual C++. I’m giving the opening talk, and the rest of the day is full of useful technical information on everything from XAML and DirectX to networking and VC++ compiler flags.

Please note: This event is Windows-specific, and talks will use both portable ISO C++ as well as Visual C++-specific libraries and compiler extensions; for brevity these are being referred to as "C++" to highlight to a Microsoft-specific audience that that this day is about Visual C++, not about Visual C# or Visual Basic or JavaScript.

From the page:

Join the Microsoft Visual C++ and Windows teams in Redmond on May 18, 2012 for a free, all-day event focused on building Windows 8 Metro style apps with C++. 

These Windows-specific talks will use both portable ISO C++ and Visual C++-specific compiler extensions; for brevity below we’ll refer to both as "C++" (i.e., this day is about Visual C++, not Visual C# or JavaScript).

We will have pragmatic advice for every developer writing Metro style apps and games with XAML and/or DirectX and C++.

Register now!

Agenda:

• Visual C++ for Windows 8, Keynote by Herb Sutter
• Building Windows 8 apps with XAML and C++
• Building Windows 8 games with DirectX and C++
• Introduction to the Windows Runtime Library  (WRL)
• Writing Connected apps: Writing networking code with C++
• Combining XAML & DirectX in a Metro style apps
• Writing WinRT components to be consumed from any language
• VC11 compiler flags for getting the most out of C++

All sessions will be recorded and available for on demand viewing on C9.

I wish I’d blogged about it right away when it was announced a week or so ago, because registration filled immediately before I could blog it (I think on the first day), and then when the room was expanded it filled again right away again before I could blog about it. Then I procrastinated for a few days. You can still register here for the waitlist to see it in person, but I have good news…

All sessions will be broadcast livestream and then available for viewing on demand. If you’re halfway around the world, or just halfway across the country, it’s hard to fly somewhere for a one-day event anyway; thanks to livestream and on-demand, the Internet is our friend. I look forward to seeing and e-seeing many of you there.

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