Sessions on advanced C++ techniques

Topics

• A.1. Constant magic
  Everything you want to know about constants. Pointer to constants, constant members and constant memberfunctions. Const_cast and mutable. When phisical and logical constants are different?
• A.2. Pointers and references Prereq: A.1.
  What is the concept behind reference? Left values. What is the difference between pointers and references? Parameters passed by reference, functions returning reference. Constant reference. Reference and polymorphism.
• A.3. Constructors and destructors Prereq: A.1. A.2
  Life-categories in C++. When objects are allocated and when initialized? Constructors for conversions and to create temporaries. The explicit keyword. Destructors, virtual destructors. Virtualize constructors: cloning. Copy constructor and assignment operator. Reference counting technique. Constructors and access levels: protected and private constructors or destructors.
• A.4. Advanced memory handling Prereq: A.2. A.3.
  Memory-models in C++. New and delete operators. Constructors, exceptions and memory-leaks. The auto_ptr - and when it does not help. Write your own smart pointer. Arrays are not polymorphic! C++ object internals.
• A.5. Templates
  Template basics. Instantiation, parameter deduction. specialization, user specialization. Template overloading. Case studies: a template stack and a template matrix. Friends for templates.
• A.6. STL fundamentals
  Sequential containers: vector, deque, list. Standard typedefs, constructors, update operations. Adaptors. Associative containers: map, multimap, set, multiset. Special operations on associative containers. Algorithms. Iterators. STL guaranties. Examples. Effective STL usage, and frequent mistakes.
• A.7. Compiling and linking issues
  Everything on project organization issues. The PIMPL and the Firewall compiling idioms. Minimalize dependencies between classes. Compilers, compatibility issues. Static and dinamic linking. How to organize templates.

Bibliography

• The C++ Programming Language (Special 3rd Edition)
  by Bjarne Stroustrup
• The C++ Standard Library : A Tutorial and Reference
  by Nicolai M. Josuttis
• Effective C++: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Design (2nd Edition)
  by Scott Meyers
• The Design and Evolution of C++
  by Bjarne Stroustrup
• Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied
  by Andrei Alexandrescu

Links

• The draft C++ standard
• My homepage
• C++ (Hungarian)
• Advanced C++ Lessons