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Biggest Changes In C++11 (and Why You Should Care)
Esther Schindler writes "It's been 13 years since the first iteration of the C++ language. Danny Kalev, a former member of the C++ standards committee, explains how the programming language has been improved and how it can help you write better code."
The article is probably referring to the first finished C++ ISO standard, 14882:1998. Hardly the "first iteration" of the language.
I really like that they added new stuff to the language but ...
Have they *removed* anything at all from it? That's the only way I could get interested in that language again.
This is news for nerds. Stuff that matters. I thought /. abandoned this stuff ages ago...
Slashdot - News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, in ISO-8859-1 Has just realised that beta makes this signature redundant
C++ goes all the way to 11. It's one louder than other languages.
What struck me was that C++ got lambda expressions before Java did!
GCC, which is probably the most used C++ compiler, supports the new for-syntax since 4.6, deleted member functions since 4.4, and explicit virtual overrides in the 4.7 development series.
Templates are fine for little classes but they got so abused by STL that it was not uncommon to see trivial syntax errors turn into enormous cryptic compiler errors spanning multiple lines of nested templates and typedefs, half of whom you'd never heard of. After poring over this enormous error for minutes or longer you might eventually discover you missed a * off some declaration.
Your comment caught some flack, but I couldn't help but make a similar observation as I read the spec. It seems that they are adding a lot of stuff to C++ that exists in C# (lambda expressions, delegated constructors, automatic deduction, initialization syntax, a dedicated null keyword, etc).
Of course, they added a bunch of stuff that's also NOT in C# (since it's not necessary in a high-level language like C#), but I am glad that they are revamping C++ to incorporate some higher-level functions. Now we just have to wait for compilers to start adopting the new spec...
The saddest part about this whole C++0x ordeal is that they're still just playing catch-up to C#.
True. In particular, C++ is light years behind C# in patent FUD. And C++ hasn't even started work on requirements for a 100MB "managed environment" for users to install before running their apps. Nor have C++ developers chosen a monkey species after which to name its 2nd-class-citizen cross-platform implementation.
I have to lol at the "constant win api changes" statement. The Win API bends over backwards for backwards compatibility. In Unix, especially Linux, outside of POSIX (which is fairly limited in functionality), backwards compatibility is almost a 4 letter word.