Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:I think it's great (Score 1) 435

To tell the truth the only thing I'm still using from boost is intrusive_ptr (an intrusive reference-counted smart pointer), which I use practically everywhere to help automate memory management and make integration with Python easier.

But with boost you can mix/match as needed, and use only as little of it as you need.

Transitioning some of the os-centric stuff (like threading primitives) from boost to C++11 just avoids having to add boost to your dependency chain. It's nice to only have to rely on what's in the language or the standard library, since you'll know it'll always be there - and presumably, is as efficient as possible.

Comment I think it's great (Score 5, Insightful) 435

Unlike a lot of commenters here, I actually use C++ every day, and have been for about 20 years. I think the evolution of the language has been great.

I write software for the digital visual effects industry, and it has to be fast, portable, and adaptable. To that end I tend to write as light-weight low-level code as possible, strongly separated from the UI, since I never know where I may end up needing to use it. For instance, when we decided to put a bunch of our filters on iOS, it pretty much worked as-is.

One key to writing nice clean portable code is to avoid dragging in too many dependencies. At the lowest level, about the only external dependencies I used are a few things from boost. But with C++11, a lot of that functionality has moved into the core language (or the standard library). Threading and synchronization primitives such as atomic_int, thread, and mutex are now part of the language, and no longer need to be brought in from boost. This makes everything much cleaner, especially with build/test integration.

lambdas are another thing I really like. Instead of writing messy functors (for auto-threading image processing kernels for example) I can drop the code in-line using a lambda. Much more readable and cuts down on complexity.

The new move-semantics have also made nice improvements to code design and performance, allowing you to move whole objects around with practically zero cost as if they were references.

On the UI side of things I usually use Qt, and there have been C++11-related improvements there as well, such as signals and slots now being type-safe.

Comment Re:Auto-move on green (Score 1) 364

I was specifically thinking of the people behind the first car in line, in this case. There is always some dumb delay after each car starts moving - obviously this would only kick in after the first car starts moving. When I'm first at a light, I always spend the entire time scanning for people and cars doing dumb things, as well as anticipating the light turning green.

Comment Auto-move on green (Score 1) 364

On the flip side, I was sitting at a light the other day (in Florida, which has the longest lights in the world) thinking how great it would be if all cars sitting at a red light were somehow forced to start moving at once when the light turns green. It seems I'm the only person who understands that eventually the red light will turn green. This would allow many more cars to make it through each cycle.

Slashdot Top Deals

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. -- Thomas Jefferson

Working...