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Debunking C++ Myths

Debunking C++ Myths

By : Alexandru Bolboacă, Ferenc-Lajos Deák
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Debunking C++ Myths

Debunking C++ Myths

By: Alexandru Bolboacă, Ferenc-Lajos Deák

Overview of this book

Think you know C++? Think again. For decades, C++ has been clouded by myths and misunderstandings—from its early design decisions to misconceptions that still linger today. Claims like "C++ is too hard to learn" or "C++ is obsolete" are often rooted in some truth, but they are outdated and fail to capture the language’s ongoing evolution and modern capabilities. Written by industry veterans with over 40 years of combined experience, this book uncovers the myths, exploring their origins and relevance in the context of today’s C++ landscape. It equips you with a deeper understanding of advanced features and best practices to elevate your projects. Each chapter tackles a specific misconception, shedding light on C++'s modern features, such as smart pointers, lambdas, and concurrency. You’ll learn practical strategies to navigate common challenges like code portability and compiler compatibility, as well as how to incorporate modern best practices into your C++ codebase to optimize performance and future-proof your projects. By the end of this book, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of C++'s evolution, equipping you to make informed decisions and harness its powerful features to enhance your skills, coding practices, and projects.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
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Whitespace matters – until it doesn’t

The following piece of code is not an extraordinarily complicated snippet:

#include <cstdio>
#define STR_I(x) #x
#define STR(x) STR_I(x)
#define JOIN(x,y) (x y)
#define Hello(x) HELLO
int main(void){
    printf("%s\n", STR(JOIN(Hello, World)));
    printf("%s\n", STR(JOIN(Hello,World )));
}

The not-so-complex code defines a series of macros to manipulate strings and concatenate tokens. STR_I(x) stringifies its argument, STR(x) ensures full macro expansion before stringification, JOIN(x,y) concatenates two arguments with a space, and Hello(x) is defined but, strangely, unused.

What comes up are two most important printf calls in the lifetime of this short program. In the first printf call, JOIN(Hello, World) expands to (Hello World), which is then stringified to "(Hello World)". That’s nothing overly complicated.

However, the fun part comes...

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