C++ and Beyond

In a blog post last March about the availability of the C&B 2013 videos, I wrote:

• Technical problems with the recording setup led to our losing about half the sessions.
• Of the sessions we do have, at least some will eventually be published, but we don’t currently have a schedule. Before we can publish them, we need to review the recordings to make sure they’re acceptable, and in some cases there are constraints on how soon we can release them. At this point, it looks like some of the videos won’t be available until the fall.

The fall has since come and gone, and, to be frank, we forgot about the videos until a recent email asked us about them. We wrote to the people who did the recording to ask whether the sessions we had were ready to be published, and this is what we got back:

It turns out that due to hardware upgrades in the last year, the videos are no longer available.

Sigh.

We’re disappointed, too.

Scott

Early each year since 2010, Herb and Andrei and I have looked at our schedules, constraints, and interests to determine whether a C++ and Beyond that year was compatible with everything else we wanted to achieve. For five years in a row, it was. This year, it looks like it won’t be.

Fortunately, the C++ event landscape is richer now than it has been in a long time, so while we’d like to believe there’s  no other happening quite like C&B, we know there are plenty of technical events in 2015 that will fill the void. We encourage you to take part in them.

Will there be a C&B in 2016? We don’t know. That’s a question we won’t take up until early next year :-)

Scott

In just two weeks, C&B Stuttgart will be a reality. I’m looking forward to it for at least the following reasons:

• Although my talk topics haven’t changed since last year’s C&B, my understanding of them has. I have new information on C++ type deduction, on new features in C++14, and on lambdas vs. std::bind. I’m especially looking forward to showing an example of C++14 variable templates that doesn’t involve pi! (I mean, really, who thinks there’s much call for a version of pi that’s truncated to 3?)
• Herb and I both understand more about the implications of pass-by-value than we used to, but despite his seeing more reason than he used to (i.e., having moved closer to my point of view), we’re still feuding about parameter passing advice. This is a meaty enough topic that we may promote it to a panel session.
• It will be the first time since last year’s C&B that the three of us will get to talk C++ together. We were all at last week’s CppCon, but Herb was the only one there for the full week, and my time there didn’t overlap with Andrei’s. C&B is the only event of the year where we synchronize calendars and go out of our way to make sure we’re at the same place at the same time.
• In another difference from CppCon, it will be nice to enjoy the relative intimacy of a smaller event. There’s not much opportunity to talk with most people when there are 500+ attendees. In accord with past C&Bs, C++ and Beyond in Stuttgart is looking to have about 100 people, which is a small enough group that there should be time to talk to pretty much everybody over the course of its three days.

If you’re not yet signed up for C&B in Stuttgart, there’s still time, but it’s running out. For registration information, consult the C&B Page at QA Systems.

I hope to see you in Stuttgart at the end of the month!

Scott

Herb and Andrei and I are pleased to announce that C++ and Beyond will take place in 2014! The dates are September 29 through October 1, and the location is Stuttgart, Germany.

You can think of this event as the C&B Road Show, because the organization is a little different from how we’ve done things in the past:

• Most of the talks will be updated versions of the presentations we gave at C&B 2013. (See the schedule here.) If you were unable to attend C&B this past December, this is your chance to see what you missed.
• A group dinner on the first day is included.
• The schedule is a bit compressed, so some aspects of previous C&Bs are not present. These include group breakfasts and evening discussion sessions.

For this event, we’ve partnered with QA Systems, the same company I’ve worked with since 1999 on technical seminars in Europe. They’ll be handling registration and all other logistical and administrative aspects of the event. Consult their web page for C&B 2014 for all the details of this event.

This will be the only C&B in 2014, so we hope to see you in Stuttgart at the end of September for the first-ever C&B in Europe!

Scott

Those of you who’ve been patiently holding your breath waiting for the publication of videos from C&B 2013 should probably let it out and breathe normally for a bit. Here’s the situation:

• Technical problems with the recording setup led to our losing about half the sessions.
• Of the sessions we do have, at least some will eventually be published, but we don’t currently have a schedule. Before we can publish them, we need to review the recordings to make sure they’re acceptable, and in some cases there are constraints on how soon we can release them. At this point, it looks like some of the videos won’t be available until the fall.

We know that many of you have been looking forward to the videos, and, like you, we’re disappointed in this turn of events. The good news is that some of the videos will definitely go online in the coming months. The bad news is that we’re not sure which ones, and we’re not sure when.

Thanks for your continuing interest. We’ll keep you posted via this blog.

Scott

Loyal C&B Attendee Fedor Pikus graciously shared some of his photos with us, and the one below struck me as both funny and, in the context of the talk in which it occurred, insightful. That talk-“Optimization Tips”-was the highest-rated at the event. Those who attended the presentation are unlikely to ever think about reference-counting the same way again.

Thanks, Fedor, for letting us use this photo, and thanks, Andrei, for words to program by!

Scott

The weather in the Pacific Northwest has been unusually cold lately, and one result is that Snoqualmie Falls (adjacent to the hotel where C&B will start in about three hours) is framed by ice. I took this a couple of hours ago. The hotel is in the upper left corner.

Scott