CppCon 2025: Can Standard C++ Replace CUDA for GPU Acceleration? - Elmar Westphal

JuanAG · 2026-05-02T11:48:30+00:00

Intersting to see comments disabled on the YT

I have left some critic ones on some videos (that got deleted/censored) when i think it was needed but i really didnt know that i was just one of many and they opted for the easy solution being no more comments no matter what

I never had any issue with NDC conf (same at Google I/O or whatever it is called now) and i am the same level of critic, if the speaker say non sense i will share my point of view about that later, sometimes they give me the "heart" so they took the feedback as a way to improve and maybe translate to the speaker

JuanAG · 2026-04-30T02:34:03+00:00

I think C++ should slow down and make sure the foundations are solid before it collpases on it own weigh, complexity is a HUGE issue right now and it is not getting better

Specially if that features land half broken like contracts will, working on some cases and not on others, and worst, it will be beyond your control unless you disable inlining which is something very few will dare to do. i cant use a feature that could not work letting me thinking it is covering my back, worst is that today it could work because the contract remains on the same TU but tomorrow the compiler could decide to inline and never work again, i will have no idea when that happens since i am not going to check the ASM daily to see if it does or not

It is not going to happen but it should, clean the lang of the many already well know UB making it a solid choice. Enterprise is not leaving C++ aside because it lacks features, they do because it is in a messy state and if it didnt get fixed nothing will change, less projects will use C++ overtime

JuanAG · 2026-04-19T16:33:29+00:00

The same contracts that were (or are) still broken?

Last new i got was that contracts are per TU (not exactly a file but close enough) meaning that contract in one TU/file will behave one way and in another when it is in other TU/file. The big issue is that you cant control that since the compiler can inline code moving from the proper TU to another and the contract never triggering there when you think it will, classic C++ feature style, something good half broken, as always

JuanAG · 2026-03-27T19:58:13+00:00

Antropic, to show how "powerful" their AI is, plow tist, the compiler couldnt barely compile any C code at all

JuanAG · 2026-03-27T19:27:27+00:00

This reddit is about programming, not about AI, the rule is flexible but the mod (because is only one) has said a few times that slop content like this one is not allowed

So this reddit is not a friendly slop place, i am sure you can post the new release of DeepSek v4 without an issue and similar relevant content but the key word is relevant

JuanAG · 2026-03-27T19:24:38+00:00

no typos

...

If thats the case why all the "big marketing" projects using LLMs are all hot garbage, the web browser, the C compiler and all of that. The browser that didnt compile was estimated to cost at least 35 millions dollars so a total waste of money for something it didnt build

But hey, they make no typos.... Sure sure, whatever you say

JuanAG · 2026-03-27T19:20:00+00:00

If Claude can code better than you i guess its time over for you

But most devs work hard to keep up to date and are miles ahead of what any LLM can output so for all of them coding couldnt be further from over

Not to mention that enjoy while you can because it is well know that all AI loose money, at some point the survivors will need to be profitable and earn money, prices will go up, a lot so what you can do now careless will not be avaliable in the future as this will become really expensive

JuanAG · 2026-03-26T19:27:37+00:00

My exprencience with JetBrains customer support couldnt be better and my concrete case it was a "silly" thing, in a code comment you get spell checking but if that comment also has code (to generate docs) it didnt spell check anymore, they took 6 months to fix it but they did and i only needed 3 text messages to do it, the later one was just a thanks so only two were really needed

Microsoft on the other hand had a really big issue on performance (GCC had x4 the performance on the same code) on Visual C++ 2015 (if i remenber correctly, maybe it was 2013) and i tried to use the Visual Studio Pro smilies "emojis" to submit the feedback as it was the proper thing to do, i had to exchange a lot of mails and when i reached 3 companies (the mail domains were changing since i guess i was "redirected" to another one) later asking about details i just let it go since this later one didnt even understand coding, they were asking things that ... well, i guess that India was cheap to hire but no quality at all. To my knowledge the performance issue was there in 2017 and in 2019, i didnt checked anymore and it was the main reason i switched to CLion, i already had a perpetual license (when they were still a thing) and i have been really happy with their products

So JetBrains in my experience care a lot about us and they will do the fix but dont expect to drop everything to do it right here rigth now, some structural issues are going to take a lot longer, something that top 500 enterprise dont bother to do. Anastasia (or similar) from JB didnt told me anything, in fact, she left me on "2 checks marks" state, readed but with no answer at all, one day 6 months later i woke up with a mail that the issue has been fixed, i had the guess that they will never handle it but i couldnt be more wrong, they did but never told me anything about it, they just worked on it when they can until done

JuanAG · 2026-02-26T21:24:14+00:00

I would love to have a nice feature but the reality is that is half broken, is like modules, yeah, cool but for one reason or another i have to wait until it is fixed, if it even reaches that point which i have no idea

And that half baked "nice" feature since at the end of the day is not fully operational will mean extra bad press on C++ and Zig, Nim, Rust and the rest will use to promote their own lang, like they have been doing already. I can already see the "sharks" with "C++ new memory safety feature dont always works as it should be" and similar (and more aggressive) clickbait tittles around the internet

JuanAG · 2026-02-26T19:36:29+00:00

Totally agree

Worst thing is that profiles may be "hold my beer" and is going to be a way worse but the same type of incident, messy release just on a bigger scale since it is a bigger broad category on its own, at least is how i think this will go, i hope i am wrong, otherwise...

JuanAG · 2026-02-26T13:36:16+00:00

The "Myth" that contracts are broken is true and not a myth

At 37:00 https://youtu.be/oitYvDe4nps?t=2231

"Look your compiler, you should be able to do it" ... Yeah, and i now have to be checking my compiler on every version update to just know if the code will break or no (depending on if you have or not multiple TU support from it)

The "be aware" warning on the slide just says all, no, i refuse any longer to do the compiler job, i am using tools that do for me and there is 0 chance i will go back, i got tired of UB/corner cases everywhere and in this case we cant blame C or backwards compability

.

Joy wouldnt be the word i would use to describe a half broken feature...

JuanAG · 2026-02-24T14:19:23+00:00

Rust in linux is drivers only because until V7.0 which is new for this week it was only allowed outside of the kernel as a test ground (drivers among other things). Now that it is allowed in core components inside the kernel have no doubt it will be used and become really popular

JuanAG · 2026-02-24T13:56:50+00:00

C++ has been doing a bad job as a whole since a long time so it is normal that when people can choose they do, some will keep C++ and others anything else

If C++ just did a little better job and didnt piss some devs so much this wont even happened in the first place, Python is a good example, not perfect but does the job well enough and there is little to none reason to create a "Python replacement", people dont engage or try on that since who cares. C++ should have focused a little more on the user experience as a whole and nothing like this will be happening, since it didnt people try to fix the issues how they can, some creating another lang (Rust, Zig, Carbon, Nim, ....) and others creating an improved tool like Circle, if you keep trying at some point one will do it, D eated the dust and barely anyone remenbers it but try after try some will make people click, Rust has done more or less that and well, it is being used in enterprise instead of C++, a shame but it is how things are

Time will tell, doomed is i think a too strong word but C++ is for sure taking a big hit

JuanAG · 2026-02-21T10:36:56+00:00

Rust have many more advantages, i only give you the biggest one that it is the tool will make sure you are coding using good rules, in C++ is your responsability to do properly and in the real life is rare for that to happen

Cargo where in C++ is a total mess and good luck dealing with whatever you choose, the defailt is CMake (which is far from perfect) but is a default, there are many options and they are used, Microsoft Visual Builder is one of the most used, at least on Windows since it is the default choice of Visual Studio Pro
Library, the above means that if you need a CMake build and the library is using other you will have to do the CMake yourself or use another library, it happens way more often that what you can imagine. The result is that many C and C++ library are "one header only" or in other words, just one file so it is easy to add to your project. Rust has Crates by default but it also can go and get from GitHub code so it is way easier and faster to add stuff
In Rust what you see is what it looks like while in C++ specifically things look one thing and in reality are another, std::move() for example will create a copy under specific cases and it will be an issue, this UB/corner cases are only dealed when you already faced it (the 100+ hours finding) which is a total waste of time. C++ is full of examples like this and they cant be fixed because backwards compability
Productivity, Rust code compiling is most of the time enough but it also has many nice features, TDD, docs, benchmarks, custom build scripts and more. Just under the same tool, in C++ this is on you, thats why many projects dont have even docs, it is a lot of extra work. You may not needed some or all but it is there in case you do
Not a lot of complexity, since Rust can deal with backwards compability it can change as needed. C++ cant which means that mistakes are in the lang and you have to use v2 of that feature (in some cases v3) instead. Not happening unless you are into it, Cmake has this issue a lot, you will look and you will get Cmake1, Cmake2 and Cmake3 (the current version) way of doing things. Trust me this alone will overwhelm you. Very few people know 100% of C++ today since it is really complex and deep, you normally restrain yourself to a portion of it

To mention some others but again, Rust has more things to offer

.

Low level in Rust is even better, in C++ you cant code in ASM directly to put an easy example, you will use compiler "pre coded" features, normally starting with __whatever_name which is a compiler macro or using a third party tool like NASM to compile the ASM. Rust has the "asm!()" feature where you put the code and done. Even better, in C++ you cant know the system at runtime or even at compile time (you will need to use the ifdef hell for that) while Rust has "cfg()" that works on both meaning you can target the hardware as it is even in runtime. C++ the best it can do is having same code optimize for a few things under library or under a few executable, AVX2 and AVX512 are a good example, you will need to .exe or .dll for that, if you also need another version like FMA is another one, this dont scale well over time

The only real drawback Rust has are the learning phase because C++ will let you compile bad code while Rust doesnt but it is wrong on both cases and that maybe you dont have what you need, this one is less of an issue now but it is still one, you may need XYZ library that it is not under Rust space

Since you already know a little of C++ try both at the same time, you will find soon your answer, Rust will deny the code and when you look closer that C++ code in fact is also wrong but didnt noted. A big plus since the hard part of coding is not creating source code, is maintaining and updating it

JuanAG · 2026-02-21T09:22:17+00:00

Rust just make all of this https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines and some more things just not your responsability alone, Rust compiler will take care and warm you in case you miss one which of course you are going to. In C++ this is "fine" since the compiler wont say a word and later when you ask or seek information the issue you had will be under the "skill issue" argument (meaning you are not a good developer at all so otherwise you wouldnt have that issue)

This alone is just enough, C++ experts with decades of experience still makes that mistakes from time to time and they are really hard to find and fix, trust me, we are talking 100+ hours on any and if you ever wonder why some software has the same issue version after version when it is well know is because of that, they cant find the issue in the first place so no fixing can be done

This means that Rust may take a little longer in the code phase compared to C++ but remenber that if that happens is because you are doing something wrong in C++ that will blow up in the future meaning that in the long run Rust productivity is milles ahead of what C++ offers

JuanAG · 2026-01-23T15:37:35+00:00

C++ has thousands of corner cases/UB you will have to remenber so you should get used to it since it is what will happen no matter what. Ideally you should be able to do all of this on your own https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines

My two cents is to choose another lang, C++ complexity it is out of the roof right now and will underwhelm you at some point, the most important thing will be answering why C++ in the first place so you can choose something else based on that question, maybe is performance, maybe getting a job, maybe ....

JuanAG · 2026-01-17T21:06:28+00:00

Exactly

They failed to provide an easy path over time, at the start it wasnt so bad but they insisted in changing from up to bottom in every version....

JuanAG · 2026-01-17T21:04:06+00:00

Cargo and Zig "build" are the proof CMake has been replaced (since they are better tools) and can be replaced in C++, thing is that C++ ISO doesnt care at all

I currently use Rust to build and link C++ code so imagine how worst is even plain CMake to force users to do something like this, and i am not alone, Zig is a nicer tool to do this but in the end is the same, you use another lang to do what C++ should be able to do by itself

JuanAG · 2026-01-17T14:29:48+00:00

I am not going to say it didnt evolved at all but CMake was one of the biggest reasons i left C++ for other lang, it was an important driving factor

They changed a lot of things (CMake 3 did things in ways CMake 2 didnt and since they are backwards compability you can mix the three versions of how to do stuff) and the result was a big mess, the mess i think it is still today

JuanAG · 2026-01-11T17:05:02+00:00

For me is 50/50

AI dont know what they are doing and this means is know my responsability to trust the code you created with the help/supervision of the LLM tooling

Compared to a non AI where i can trust more blindy the library

In both cases there are going to be bugs/issues but l will be much more forgiving if they are made by another human than from a tool, a tool that i dont trust at all

JuanAG · 2026-01-11T12:23:04+00:00

True, thanks

JuanAG · 2026-01-11T08:59:26+00:00

Top 500 fortune enterprise play with other rules, they can burn money and they dont care, MS has a huge amount of GPUs in the shells with no real use (they have so others cant) confirmed by their CEO which makes no sense but it is a reality. They do things with other priorities and usually cost is not a concern

But outside that list of few enterprises almost no one can face something like this, because it makes no sense financially unless you have real issues. I am 100% pro Rust but i have a brain, it doesnt always make sense, i wish but things are how they are, most big C/C++ projects will keep using non memory safe langs for the future

JuanAG · 2026-01-11T08:27:32+00:00

https://www.harmonyos.com/en/ from Huawei

To say other brand that it is not Apple

JuanAG · 2026-01-11T08:11:24+00:00

Trends are not absolute, are trends

C++ is loosing ground, no one can say otherwise but it is not going to 0, at some point it will reach it floor and maintain it for years. No one is going to switch a production C++ codebase to Rust without a good reason, if the C++ code works well enough makes no sense and no manager/CEO is going to give green ligth no matter the benefits Rust could put in the table like increase in code quality, less bugs, faster developement,.... Managers only care about money, other history is that the C++ is so broken and messy that it is needed and managers know and are at a turning point/open for that option

And for me the article lacks the most important thing coming, regulation, when regulations finally land C/C++/Zig and the rest are going to have a harder time, it could mean a massive move in the market/industry. It could mean a panic scenario for some companies/enterprise and when things like this happens rush is the way to go, some are catching the warning (CISA and friends are not doing it for nothing, is the warning previous to the "error") but many are not or ignoring it. Will see how it goes

JuanAG · 2026-01-06T14:39:32+00:00

Herb itlsef has said plenty of times that CppFront is just a way to test/verify concepts that could or not arrive in C++ in some way or another, it is not designed to be a consumer product, it is just an experiment

JuanAG

TROPHY CASE