2022 was the year of the C++ successor language! It seems everyone has been talking about what the Next Big Thing is and how to get there. However, while there has been much focus on language design and features, relatively little attention has been paid to how C and C++ codebases worldwide could practically embrace a major change in the ecosystem.
This talk will approach the broad problem of how to consider the feasibility and velocity in converting existing C++ projects to the Next Big Thing. The talk will share and discuss some of the pain points and lessons learned while making large-scale changes across a large codebase, counting both the number and variety of projects involved, including hundreds of popular open source C and C++ projects.
This talk will *not* pass judgment on C, C++, or any other emerging systems programming language, but it will propose things technologists should consider when thinking about how to evolve the codebases they manage. In particular, we’ll discuss common ground for C++ optimists and pessimists – why adoption of the Next Big Thing seems to require adoption of other Big Things: C++ modules and C++ packaging standards in some form.
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Bret likes making authoring and maintaining C++ codebases simpler and more intuitive by treating projects more like cattle and less like pets. He is especially interested in the software development lifecycle, development automation, modern build systems, packaging, code transformation, software governance, and code analysis.
Bret is currently an engineer in Bloomberg's developer experience department. He has worked in embedded C++ and safety critical C++ for previous employers.