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+====== Notes from SD West 2006 ======
+I went to the C++ Tuturial with [[http://www.gotw.ca/|Herb Sutter]] and [[http://www.research.att.com/~bs|Bjarne Stroustrup]].
+Bjarne was once challenged by Adobe to explain why C++ succeeded for over 25 years with no cash or power.  (As opposed to languages with millions of dollars and massive marketing machines like Java or C#.)  He's humble, academic, and a true believer in his vision.  He explained his success partially by solving only real-world problems and not getting wrapped up in any perfect solution.  His goal was for C++ to be the //second best// at everything.  (The best generally being hand-tweaked and optimized code.)
+===== TR1 Library Extensions =====
+The namespace is currently std::tr1.
+==== shared_ptr ====
+  * Deleter object
+  * Casts
+    * ''static_pointer_cast''
+    * ''dynamic_pointer_cast''
+    * ''const_pointer_cast''
+  * ''shared_from_this'' with inheritance from ''enable_shared_from_this'' when dealing with raw pointers that we know are really pointing to shared objects.
+  * ''weak_ptr'' for breaking shared_ptr cycles.  Lock before using.
+==== binders ====
+They mostly suck.  (As compared to lambda.)  But they do have their uses.
+<code>
+find_if(v.begin(), v.end(),
+    bind(equal_to<string>(),
+        bind(&person::name, _1),
+        "Fred"));
+</code>
+==== function ====
+A function wrapper.  Can be used for the return value from a ''bind''.  Also cleans code a little.  Compare the following two:
+<code>
+pthread_once(pthread_once_t*, void(*)(void));
+pthread_once(pthread_once_t*, function<void(void)>);
+</code>
+==== regex ====
+Just like in python.
+==== random ====
+Separates the generators (distribution settings) from the engines.  Mix 'n Match 'em.
+===== Performance =====
+Bjarne presented a slide in "Speaking C++ as a Native" and in "C++0x" that presents bad use of C++ vs. better use and the impact on the runtime performance.  It went something like this:
+**Bad Use**
+<code>
+struct Link {
+    Link * link;
+    void * data;
+};
+void my_clear(Link *p, int sz)
+{
+    for (Link *q = p; q != 0; q = q->link)
+        memset(q->data, 0, sz);
+}
+</code>
+**Better Use**
+<code>
+template<class In, class T>
+void my_stl_clear(forward_it first, forward_it last, const T &v)
+{
+    while (first != last) *first++ = v;
+}
+</code>
+The idea here being that with type info, the compiler can optimize, inline and allow for caching far better than when having to deal with typeless (void) info.  The object copy was on the order of 2 to 4x faster.
+The gold standard in numbers crunching performance is Fortran, and Bjarne demonstrated how C++ can beat simple number crunching by providing the compiler with static type info to allow it to optimize cache usage.  (Dense matrix arithmetric used.)
+This also goes to the fact that we should prefer function objects over raw functions when using the STL.
+===== Template Constraints =====
+Template constraints can be used to provide qualifying information for templates, and will help make error messages far more easy to read.  Eg.,
+<code>
+template<class T> struct Comparable {
+    static void constrants(T a, T b) { a<b; a<=b; } // constraint check
+    Comparable() { void (*p)(T,T) = constrants; }  // trigger the constraint
+};
+template<class T> class Range
+    : private Comparable<T>, ... {
+};
+Range<int> r1; // ok
+Range<complex<double> > r2; // constraint error: no <
+</code>
+===== Lambda =====
+Bjarne gave an example of lambda.  I gotta look into that more closely.
+===== RAII =====
+RAII, as always, got a lot of emphasis.  Was used to decrease the number of occurances of ''try catch'' loops too.
+===== Abstract Classes =====
+Provided as the solution to the common circle and triangle inherit from a stateful base shape class.
+===== Concurrency =====
+Sutter's concur project has some really interesting ideas.  Keywords are ''active future parallel'' and ''ordered''.
+===== Concepts C++/0x =====
+"A type system for C++ types."  Concepts help constrain templates to just those types to which they can apply.
+<code>
+template<Forward_iterator For, Value_type V>
+    where Assignable<For::value_type, V>
+void fill(For first, For last, const V& v); // <-- just a declaration, not definition
+</code>
+===== Other C++/0x =====
+<code>
+template<class T> using Vec = vector<T,My_alloc<T>>; // like typedef, also note that >> is not an error!
+sort(v);  // container, not two iterators!
+for(auto p = v.begin(); p != v.end(); ++p) cout << *p << endl; // auto!
+vector<double> v = { 1, 2, 3.4 };  // Initializer_list an object, can be returned, too!
+</code>
+===== Exception Safety =====
+  - Basic Guarantee -> Invariants are maintained.
+  - Strong Guarantee ->  Either success, or no effect.
+  - No throw Guarantee ->  The operation cannot throw.  (Destructors and swap)
+Do the risky work off the the side, then commit with swap.  (And benefit from C++0x's Rvalue construction!)  RAII can sometimes be used to reduce the frequency of putting ''try catch'' blocks everywhere.
+Bjarne's //too cute// container assignment code:
+<code>
+template<class C> void safe_assign(C & a, const C b)
+{
+    swap(a,b);
+}
+</code>
+===== TODO =====
+  * Add LJ Best Practices Page
+  * Add space for Burt's Macintosh Convention
+  * Investigate ''enable_if'' from Boost, it looks cool.
+  * Investigate //swine//
+  * Document migration from Perspective to DokuWiki
+  * Expo Guide mentions a ruby installer http://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl
+===== NOTES =====
+  * I've got a sample chapter from Pete Becker's C++ Standard Library Extensions
+  * Bjarn Stroustrup agrees with WinDump powerpoint presentation, that ''catch (...)'' is bad.  (Unless you're at the interface to a module that cannot return exceptions.)  E-mail the writer.  Then put this up in the error section.
+===== Humorous =====
+  * Stroustrup not hot on the CLI.  (Not a good idea.)  But agrees that the implementation of the language extension is correct.
+  * Stroustrup thinks Andrei Alexandrescu is weird, while Herb reveres him.
+  * Sutter (and Bjarne) repeatedly uses Python as a goal for the future of C++ libraries, and used Python as the example for the TR1 regex library in C++.
+  * Sutter got really animated when one attendee suggested he heard that C# outperformed C++ at something.  Sutter said that C# does very little optimization.  Constant folding and precious little else.  The JIT doesn't do too much either, since it is runtime.  The C++ compiler is 15 years mature and produces better IL bytecode than C#.
+  * Sutter uses:
+    * Microsoft PowerPoint, (as did every presenter)
+    * but had a Macintosh skin on his OS
+    * used Google (not MSN, Start, or other MS)
+    * used linux virtual machine for code samples
+    * Browsed with Firefox.