Chapter 01 - A Brief Introduction to C++

C++ High Performance (2nd Edition)

Highlights from Chapter 1 - "A Brief Introduction to C++"

The importance of zero-cost abstrations within C++.

"Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++, defines the zero-overheadprinciple like this: " – pg. 4

"What you don't use, you don't pay for."

"What you do use, you couldn't hand-code any better."

Improved terse idiom moving from C to C++ with little change to the machine code

linked_list.c | linked_list.cpp

The intricacies and differences of C++ compared to the likes of Java

• Commpilation (JIT vs direct compilation)
• Memory management (garbage collection vs manually or reference-counting methods)
• Memory allocation (individual heap allocations vs finer control over individual or bulk stack / heap allocation for greater contiguity)

Value Semantics

"The C++ type system gives us the ability to explicitly state the ownership of an object" – pg. 9

"In the C++ version, the programmer states that the toppings are completely encapsulated by the Bagel class" – pg. 10

Const Correctness

"Const correctness means that each member function signature of a class explicitly tells the caller whether the object will be modified or not; and it will not compile if the caller tries to modify an object declared const" – pg. 11

Object Ownership

"Except in very rare situations, a C++ programmer should leave the memory handling to containers and smart pointers, and never have to rely on manual memory handling." – pg. 12

Deterministic Destruction in C++

"The destruction of objects is deterministic in C++. That means that we (can) know exactly when an object is being destroyed" – pg. 13

"Deterministic destruction is also one of the features that makes C++ predictable; something that is highly valued among programmers, and a requirement for performance-critical applications." – pg. 13

Avoiding null objects using C++ references

"C++ arguments passed as references indicate that null values are not allowed:" – pg. 14

"C++ arguments passed as pointers indicate that null values are being handled:" – pg. 14

Drawbacks of C++

• Initial complexity of the language
• Longer compile times
• Importing of libraries (headers, although now we have modules in C++20)
• Lack of provided libraries (compared to the likes of numpy or itertools in Python – handy, but not a big deal)

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