[Update: My other sessions have grown longer because there’s lots of detail to cover on the C++0x and GPU topics, and so this talk no longer fits and it will be deferred to a future event. However, much of what this was going to cover will still be covered in the context of “How To Teach C++” which targets C++0x — the main difference will be that the examples won’t be drawn directly from the Exceptional C++ books this time. -Herb]

If you’ve been doing C++ for more than a year or two, I’ll bet you grok how to think in C++… especially if we’re talking about the first C++ standard, C++98.

Now that the second ISO C++ standard is technically complete and expected to be published later this year, and many of its features are available in popular C++ compilers, it’s time to ask: How will the new features in C++0x affect the way I solve problems and write code in C++ — indeed, the way I think in the language?

As Bjarne Stroustrup put it:

Surprisingly, C++0x feels like a new language: The pieces just fit together better than they used to and I find a higher-level style of programming more natural than before and as efficient as ever.

Using a series of examples drawn from my Exceptional C++ (XC++) books, this brand-new talk illustrates how and why the new features in the just-finalized C++0x standard (aka C++11) change the way we solve problems as well as our C++ coding style. I’m going through the three XC++ books specifically bringing together many of the examples whose solutions are affected the most, and that highlight the difference in how C++0x, while retaining much that is familiar, lets us think about our code in new ways.

You’ve probably seen these popular questions before, and their solutions in C++98. (If not, you can freely browse them here in their original “Guru of the Week” or “GotW” form.) Now you’ll see them in a whole new light… and see why C++ feels like a whole new fresh language that leads to different approaches and even better solutions.

Note: This talk isn’t about a language you’ll eventually get to use someday, it’s about “now” — all the code I’ll show works on today’s most popular shipping compilers, which already implement many C++0x language and library features.

As we get closer to the event, I’ll post lists of particular XC++ Items (and corresponding GotW issues) that I plan to cover so that you can refamiliarize yourself with their C++98 solutions in advance. During the course we will be spending most of our time on the C++0x solutions, and just refer to the C++98 solutions enough to act as a refresher and for side-by-side comparison.