niedziela, 8 maja 2016

me @ ACCU 2016 - what every C++ programmer should know about modern compilers

In Poland we have this proverb "pierwsze koty za płoty"*. Basically we say it when we do something for the first time in our lives. After finding a translation, I was quite amused - "the first pancake is always spoiled". Recently I had my debut abroad on ACCU 2016 conference. You decide if it was spoiled pancake or not :)

My short 15min talk was about modern compilers. I start with basic introduction, which may be a bit surprising, then I move to C++ standard perspective and undefined behaviors, then there's a part about optimizations and finally I'm covering the ecosystem that has grown around compilers in recent years (sanitizers, 3rd tools based on compilers, etc.). Enjoy!


Slides: with comments / without comments

GCC 6.1 released [link]
If GCC was released two weeks earlier I would definitely include one slide about how verbose and helpful compilers are nowadays.
Several years ago they were unhelpful and very quiet - even if something was going terribly wrong (and the programmer would discover this in run-time) they were happily compiling assuming that the programmer knows what she's doing.
And now.. what a change. The compilers became so friendly that GCC 6.1 can even let you know that you have unmerged git content in the file!

* direct translation doesn't work :) - "first cats over the fences".