Advanced C++

Become an expert at C++ by learning all the key C++ concepts and working through interesting exercises

Key Features

• Explore C++ concepts through descriptive graphics and interactive exercises
• Learn how to keep your development bug-free with testing and debugging
• Discover various techniques to optimize your code

Book Description

C++ is one of the most widely used programming languages and is applied in a variety of domains, right from gaming to graphical user interface (GUI) programming and even operating systems. If you're looking to expand your career opportunities, mastering the advanced features of C++ is key.

The book begins with advanced C++ concepts by helping you decipher the sophisticated C++ type system and understand how various stages of compilation convert source code to object code. You'll then learn how to recognize the tools that need to be used in order to control the flow of execution, capture data, and pass data around. By creating small models, you'll even discover how to use advanced lambdas and captures and express common API design patterns in C++. As you cover later chapters, you'll explore ways to optimize your code by learning about memory alignment, cache access, and the time a program takes to run. The concluding chapter will help you to maximize performance by understanding modern CPU branch prediction and how to make your code cache-friendly.

By the end of this book, you'll have developed programming skills that will set you apart from other C++ programmers.

What you will learn

• Delve into the anatomy and workflow of C++
• Study the pros and cons of different approaches to coding in C++
• Test, run, and debug your programs
• Link object files as a dynamic library
• Use templates, SFINAE, constexpr if expressions and variadic templates
• Apply best practice to resource management

Who this book is for

If you have worked in C++ but want to learn how to make the most of this language, especially for large projects, this book is for you. A general understanding of programming and knowledge of using an editor to produce code files in project directories is a must. Some experience with strongly typed languages, such as C and C++, is also recommended.

Table of Contents

1. Anatomy of Portable C++ Software
2. No Ducks Allowed - Types, Templates, and Deduction
3. No Leaks Allowed - Exceptions and Resources
4. Separation of Concerns - Software Architecture, Functions, and Variadic Templates
5. The Philosophers' Dinner - Threads and Concurrency
6. Streams and I/O
7. Everybody Falls, It's How You Get Back Up - Testing and Debugging
8. Need for Speed - Performance and Optimization

Gazihan Alankus holds a PhD in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, he is an assistant professor at the Izmir University of Economics in Turkey. He teaches and conducts research on game development, mobile application development, and human-computer interaction. He is a Google developer expert in Dart and develops Flutter applications with his students in his company Gbot, which he founded in 2019.

Olena Lizina is a software developer with 5 years experience in C++. She has practical knowledge of developing systems for monitoring and managing remote computers with a lot of users for an international product company. For the last 4 years, she has been working for international outsourcing companies on automotive projects for well-known automotive concerns. She has been participating in the development of complex and high-performance applications on different projects, such as HMI (Human Machine Interface), navigation, and applications for work with sensors.

Rakesh Mane has over 18 years of experience in the software industry. He has worked with proficient programmers from a variety of regions such as India, the US, and Singapore. He has mostly worked in C++, Python, shell scripting, and database. In his spare time, he likes to listen to music and travel. Also, he likes to play with, experiment with, and break things using software tools and code.

Vivek Nagarajan is a self-taught programmer who started out in the 1980s on 8-bit systems. He has worked on a large number of software projects and has 14 years of professional experience with C++. Aside from this, he has worked on a wide variety of languages and frameworks across the years. He is an amateur powerlifter, DIY enthusiast, and motorcycle racer. He currently works as an independent software consultant.

Brian Price has over 30 years experience working in a variety of languages, projects, and industries, including over 20 years' experience in C++. He was worked on power station simulators, SCADA systems, and medical devices. He is currently crafting software in C++, CMake, and Python for a next-generation medical device. He enjoys solving puzzles and the Euler project in a variety of languages.