CppCon 2019

This Session is the Closing Keynote of the Back to Basics Track.

It’s been said that a programming language is a tool, and that different tools are designed to be good for different tasks. What is C++ good for? How is it a different sort of tool than other popular languages?

This talk will go into some depth on the design priorities of C++ (from the perspective of both language and library participants on the committee). We’ll dive into the ways that C++ distinguishes itself from other languages with surprisingly consistent (if unusual) design priorities. We’ll also point out ways that C++ is a wholly different tool than other languages, sometimes resulting in novel gotchas and failure modes.

If you’ve ever been interested in the raw material for a deep comparison on “Which language is better suited for a task”, this talk should provide a lot of material for understanding what C++ really is.