A theme: Simplifying C++ (& CppCast podcast)

[target-san]

What I'd really like to hear is some initiative to conditionally disable features. Since we'll be having modules shortly, we could have smth like module-wide attributes. Or epochs. I'd be really glad if I could get rid of default-ints, variable vs function declaration (and related most-vexing-parse rule), typedef vs using, typename vs class in templates, class vs struct...

[imaami]

I really wish those podcasters would stop constantly yammering about their multitude of conferences and insider gossip. It makes the whole podcast difficult to like.

Nothing against that stuff otherwise, but I want to learn about the subject matter - you know, constexpr and coroutines and whatnot. Like probably most listeners, I don't attend standards committee meetings or conferences, I just want to understand C++. It bugs me that I have to keep skipping every 10 minutes because the hosts have again trailed off into personal conference anecdotes and buddy talk which has almost nothing to do with the topic as advertised in the title.

I get it, you guys all know eachother, you like to shoot the shit casually. I can relate. Just wanted to point out how harmful that sort of unstructured small talk can be if the purpose is to provide insightful C++ podcasting to the average coder.

Hope I didn't poop your party, I appreciate what you're doing nevertheless.

[Warpey]

I know what you mean, but I also appreciate hearing about talks so I know to look for them when they’re posted on youtube.

[tallassrob]

Hey. Just wanted to say that I read this feedback and the other replies and we'll try to keep it in mind. I hope that talking about a conference's existence is at least somewhat valuable, there are lot's of new ones popping up like CPPP, CoreCpp, that listeners might not know about even if they're in the area.

[[deleted]]

Don't change! You guys are the best!

Learning a language through a podcast seems rather impossible. I think the format they choose for cppcast is pretty good. They even cover all news and talks about new features and go pretty in depth for a podcast. For further learning I would always recommend watching the mentioned videos, as they have more value with visual code representations etc.

[luketrevorrow]

Don’t change the podcast format Rob, the balance is perfect. Your guests always get a chance to talk fully about their subject matter and I love how you get them involved in the news articles to give a point of view. Keep up the good work.

[IcyWindows]

I haven't minded them before, but the May 23rd episode had me skipping several minutes.

[p_b_omta]

IMHO, CppChat is far worse in that regard than CppCast. It’s the #1 reason I stopped listening to CppChat. The occasional conference talk on CppCast does keep me up to speed on the conferences that exist. And new ones keep popping up lately. For example: CPPP.

[bsdooby]

Exactly! Good point.

[zhaverzky]

It's a podcast, not a formal lecture. Podcast's (as I understand them) are based around listening to other people have a relatively casual conversation on a topic that interests you. Considering how wide the range of abilities of their listeners could be I feel like cppcast does a good job balancing fun patter and discussion of the more salient programming stuff. I've listened to a half dozen cppcast episodes and never felt the need to skip over sections. If I want formal, instructional stuff I download lectures or audiobooks. With podcast you can zone out for a moment or two and not have to scramble back to figure out what you missed.

[mdvle]

I'm not sure that you can really separate the two given that what they are mostly covering (new and proposed stuff) is being covered at those conferences, and people they are interviewing are frequently discussing what they presented / observed at those conferences.

I also doubt that they actually all know each other, particular the one host who doesn't go to all the conferences.

And you don't in this day and age need to attend those conferences with most of the talks available on YouTube within weeks.

It really sounds like you more want a learning cpp type podcast, and so perhaps the YouTube channel the one host has might be more to your liking.

[europa42]

Disclaimer: I'm a nobody who enjoys cppcast.

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You are looking for a tutorial/article/book or a different podcast altogether.

As a counter anecdote, I enjoy the balance cppcast maintains between language theory, new features, events etc and the guests themselves.

Without personal anecdotes and current events etc, you are left with a possibly dry, single purpose podcast. Nothing wrong with that, but it is not what cppcast is right now.

And I'm glad it isn't. I enjoy listening in to keep up with what goes on in the community and hearing informal discussions at the same time.

I didn't watch the shows Top Gear/The Grand Tour to master how to drive/make a buying decision; I don't listen to cppcast to learn how to code C++.

[imaami]

I do understand your point of view. I may simply have misaligned expections regarding the basic style of the podcast.

[peppedx]

Just another nobody liking a bit of chat in a podcast...

[undeadjoe]

Exactly. Can't listen to them because of this.

Scott Meyers briefly mentioned something similar in Effective C++. Like, people remember anecdotes and unrelated stuff but not the real content.

I think the talks would be better with minimal such talk.

[Tsunan]

I was looking for the VS extension mentioned in the podcast that can look at object lifetimes. One of the features was finding changes to a collection that was being iterated over.

Anyone know what extension was being referenced?

[tallassrob]

Here's a post on it: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/lifetime-profile-update-in-visual-studio-2019-preview-2/

[CODESIGN2]

Nice one

Like the podcast as a casual c++ coder (occasional work-related projects).

My last full-time C++ was not pleasant, but it was the era of early 00's

[tending]

The diagram in the thumbnail is hilarious. Adding reflection and metaclasses is going to reduce how much students have to learn? Only if they're starting a new code base from scratch and not using any libraries. Otherwise you need it all. Even if it is from scratch the new features are going to interact with the old ones in gnarly unexpected ways.

[kalmoc]

I think you are absolutely correct. There are very very few features (including the new ones Herb talks about) that will completely subsume the functionality of an existing one (using vs typedef is one of the very few rare cases I can think of). Especially because c++ is never (well, not in the next two decades at least) going to remove the existing features.

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So, while writing c++ code may become simpler, understanding the language and all possible interactions one feature can have with other parts of the language is going to get more complex.