Whenever I see 'sequence points', I want to get all pedantic and point out that the term itself is deprecated as of C++11, in favor of using more precise terminaology concerning memory ordering (and we actually can now, because of the C++11 memory model). But then I refrain.

That's true in theory; the problem is that OpenCL still feels a few years (or more...) behind CUDA. I have used both, and while OpenCL is undoubtedly the future, CUDA is still by far the better choice for GPGPU today.

The worrying thing is that I've been saying that for the past 5 years, and it hasn't shown any signs of changing. AMD's OpenCL implementation (everything from the drivers to the compiler) are a total crapshoot. With each release they fix one bug, but introduce 1 new one and 1 regression. (completely) innocuous changes in kernel code can make for dramatic swings in the compiled output. All too often AMD's OpenCL still feels like it's at its proof-of-concept phase, and Nvidia (those bastards) haven't released anything OpenCL related since OpenCL 1.1 (which was something like 5 years ago).

OpenCL implementations are too uneven still as well; I have been working with an embedded system lately that has coprocessors and advertises as being OpenCL compatible. The problem is that their implementation is at best incomplete and at worst completely wrong, to the point of not being usable. Maybe in another 5 years OpenCL will be the better choice

... the fine print being that she too was murdered (in 2007), with Al-Qaeda claiming responsibility. Arguing that Pakistan doesn't have a problem with militant islamist groups murdering women is a pretty tough sell

Declaring a function inline does not guarentee the function will actually be inlined -- the compiler decides whether it'll be inlined or not, and generally only small functions will be inlined, so if you're using a compiler made within the last decade, large inline functions are not a problem. What inline DOES do is modify the function's linkage specification, but that's a different matter.

I expect OpenCL will move more and more towards C++ -- CUDA (the NVidia proprietary counterpart) also started off as C, but is now much closer to C++. (e.g. uses C++ compiler for host-side code, templated kernels, etc).

C++ might not end up being faster, but it certainly has no reason to be slower*. Well-written C++ and C should run at about the same speed. However, C++ has the advantage of allowing you to use high-level constructs when performance isn't as much of an issue.

* this is contingent on your compiler -- if you're using some compiler from a decade ago, some constructs (e.g. templates) may emit shockingly poor code

C++ is great anywhere you need performance. Numerical computing, scientific computing, image processing, computer vision, machine learning, etc -- all of these benefit greatly from C++, as you can use it as a high-level language in the non-performance critical parts, but at the same time, be able to optimize effectively in the places where it matters.

Sounds like you're looking for C++ and std::string

Of course, you're not using auto_ptr anymore, right? It's been deprecated in C++11, and there's little to no reason to use it in favor of unique_ptr. auto_ptr was the attempt at implementing unique_ptr semantics prior to having rvalue references as part of the language. As for the possible pitfalls... shared_ptr can still fall prey to cyclical dependencies, but unique_ptr is very good for enforcing ownership semantics.

I find it amazing that there are still birthers out there.

Not sure if you're trolling, but I'll bite. This is very common in security literature -- it's always Eve, Alice and Bob, with Eve trying to intercept/subvert Alice and Bob's communications. Nothing to do with PC. That's just how it's done.

Sure, but you'll need a time machine

Fortran doesn't have pointer aliasing. This allows the compiler to perform more aggressive optimizations

Of course, the STL was written by Stepanov before C++ was standardized. What the interviewer probably meant to ask about is the C++ standard library, which is similar but different. Or maybe they really were asking about the STL, in which case I wholeheartedly agree that bullets were dodged.

Wasteland 2 comes out this Friday (9/19) and Pillars of Eternity is still in Beta. Unless you've got a time machine that's about as new as it gets.