A Committee Draft for C++14 was adopted in April, so we now have a good idea of what the next revision of C++ will look like. On the language side, headliner features include significantly increased lambda and constexpr functionality, return type deduction for “normal” (i.e., non-lambda) functions, and templates for variables. In the standard library, significant additions include support for reader/writer locks, std::make_unique, std::optional, std::dynarray, and IO operations that preserve the value of quoted strings. These lists are not exhaustive, but they should suffice to make clear that C++14 is far more than a C++11 bugfix release.
By the time C++ and Beyond takes place in December, we expect that some of these features will have started to appear in compilers and standard libraries, so knowing about them will be eminently practical. But we have a second reason for offering this talk: it will permit us to assume that everybody’s up to speed on C++14 basics. That will allow us to use those basics in later talks at C&B. Given that C++ and Beyond takes place just a month before 2014 begins, demonstrating how to incorporate C++14 features in real code bases is only natural.
Andrei and Herb and I have agreed that this is a talk we’ll definitely give at C&B, but we haven’t yet decided who will give it. In fact, it may end up being a joint presentation by two or even all three of us. We’ll figure that out later. For now, rest assured that if you attend C&B in December 2013, you’ll leave well prepared for C++ in 2014.
Scott
