Over the last 7-8 years what are the biggest influences on C++ programming?

Question

I started programming in C++. It was my first language, but I have not used it in many years.

What are the new developments in the C++ world? What are the BIG things -

Answer 1

Boost:

free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries.

We emphasize libraries that work well with the C++ Standard Library...

We aim to establish "existing practice" and provide reference implementations so that Boost libraries are suitable for eventual standardization. Ten Boost libraries are included in the C++ Standards Committee's Library Technical Report (TR1) and in the new C++11 Standard. C++11 also includes several more Boost libraries in addition to those from TR1. More Boost libraries are proposed for standardization in C++17...

Answer 2

C++0x

Modern C++ is not only a OOP language. C++0x (the new standard) will include many new additions. It might take some time before it is applied thoroughly in every IDE/compilers but it will add a lot to an already excellent language.

Here is a list of new features of the new standard: C++0x

**Edit: C++0x is the result of the past 8-9 years (thank you jalf).

Answer 3

• It’s usually not the first language you learn at college or university anymore. This makes prospective learners appreciative of C++ and eases them into it.

• The internet, video editing sites, and forums that help programmers of all levels to get help and feedback in a very timely fashion.

Answer 4

Over the last 7-8 years what are the biggest influences on C++ programming?

Boost was already mentioned and I second that.

The importance of Boost is not just its efficiency and spectrum, but also the promotion of concept-based methods.

Stepanov's famous statement at http://www.stlport.org/resources/StepanovUSA.html

I find OOP philosophically unsound. It claims that everything is an object. Even if it is true it is not very interesting - saying that everything is an object is saying nothing at all.

still holds, the concept of "everything" is still every thing and not "object" - if it was "object", what would "class" then be?

And promoting those concept-based methods is in order, because contrary to common wisdom OOADP is often amazingly concept-less:

OOA is nice for reformulating problems the fancy way but we're not paid for talking fancy but for realizing machine support for workflow concepts users have for their problem domain.

OOD has more value in it if it used as a means to achieve a proper decomposition of large systems and as means to express thinking in patterns (which is quite natural for us), but it is never to be taken as a self purpose. I still recall OO "designs" from ~2000 which were presented with great ado and OO babble and featurism but were not even self-consistent.

The concept behind that method should be finding appropriate and useful abstractions, not finding every possible abstraction. Also in ~2000 I've once seen a (even multi)-inheritance hierarchy of depth 7 from which just one leaf class and its possible descendants would ever be used in the system to be created.

Finally OOP, in the closest sense, naturally tends to create state which is then carefully, and, of course, by more OO, so "More of the Same" (Watzlawick), to be protected against concurrent access. In these situations often the concept needed would be doing something instead ot the OO assembly having something.

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C++ coding was 10 years ago, especially due to its "competition" with Java, quite susceptible for the OO odds mentioned, so I think that concept-based methods were a great cure. Boost libs are role models for successfully applying those methods.

Answer 5

"Modern C++", STL, template metaprogramming and Generic programming.

(And yes, they're one single answer, because they're pretty closely intertwined and together represent a complete paradigm shift in C++ development. While some of them are older than 8-9 years, it's pretty much in the last years that they've really gained traction and really left "C with classes" in the dust.

Answer 6

Scott Meyers wrote about most important C++ people and the most important C++ books. These all had a major influence on how programmers write C++ today.