I had a lot on my plate when the MVP renewals appeared July 6th, but I'm delighted to number myself among this illustrious group again. I'm never worried that I haven't done enough for the C++ community, but I do sometimes worry if the C++ community is the target audience for the program any more. Still, I suppose it must be, since they renewed me.

I updated my profile on the MVP site a little.

Kate

From time to time I think it's wise to summarize the courses I have on Pluralsight. There is a link on the side you can use to get a free trial if you want to take any of these. Because I redo most of the courses each time a new version of C++ becomes widespread, there are quite a few courses with similar names. Here's a quick summary.

If you are using the latest version of a major compiler, you are on C++20. These courses have been updated for C++20:

• C++ 20: The Big Picture This is an overview covering "what is C++?" and "what is it used for?". If someone has suggested you learn it, start here to understand why you might want to. The title means that it's up to date to C++20, not that it only covers C++20. The actual content is equally applicable to older versions of the language.
  
• C++20 Fundamentals is more properly "the fundamentals of C++ including things that were introduced in C++20". This is an introduction to the ideas, syntax, and standard library. At seven and a half hours it can't cover absolutely every corner of the language, but it does cover what you need to call yourself a C++ programmer, and get started writing real code. This course assumes you already know how to program. If you don't, try Learn to Program with C++ 17 which will cover the building blocks of programming languages like loops, functions, and objects while teaching the C++ syntax and library. Afterwards, you can take Fundamentals to fill in any gaps.
  
• C++20 Algorithms Playbook again covers up to and including C++20, so plenty of things that have been around for decades, but it does have a lot of content that is C++20 only, because ranges made such a big difference here. If you're not on C++20 yet, take the C++17 version, listed below. Both versions are designed to convince you to stop writing raw loops and start using the many useful functions provided in the standard library. I demystify iterators and show you the benefits of using library code instead of rolling your own.

Time for an update on the conferences I'm doing in 2023.

In April I did the closing keynote at ACCU, Grinding, Farming, and Alliances How words and ideas from casual gaming can make you a better programmer. My idea here is that certain things you are fine with in games, like "daily housekeeping", don't feel the same in your job. If you could feel better about them, you might be happier or more successful. Also, games pull on strengths like altruism and responsibility to get you to do things -- can your job do the same? Can your harness that to be more successful (however you define success) or happier at work? This talk was recorded and I expect it on the ACCU Youtube channel some time in June.

Next up will be "my own" conference, which is to say the one dearest to me as well as geographically nearest, CppNorth. There's still time to register for this: it will be in Toronto at the King Edward Hotel. July 17th and 18th are preconference workshops, and the 19th, 20th, and 21st are three jam packed days of sessions with evening activities Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. If you live in and around Toronto this is your chance to see famous speakers (and discover some new ones) without having to fly a long way. I recommend you get a hotel room though, so you can truly immerse yourself in the conference while you're attending. My keynote is Steps To Wisdom: some tips I want to share with you that I earned through hard experience.

In September I'll be returning to NDC Techtown, this time to deliver the closing keynote on Day 1. These days I choose conferences based on many factors and small friendly ones like CppNorth and NDC Techtown really appeal to me. Both attract very good speakers and I expect to learn things -- I know I did last year!

In November I'll be doing something I haven't done before -- I recommend doing something new at least once a year no matter how old you get. In this case it's Qt World Summit in Berlin, where I will have a small keynote. I look forward to new people and new ideas from this experience, and hope to reach some people who haven't heard me speak before.

It's not too soon to think about the 2024 season, for me anyway. If you'd like me to speak at your conference, you can see many of my previous talks on my YouTube playlist. Please check my Speaker Kit for the details of my preferences.

See you at a conference, I hope!

Kate

I've been working away for the last few months completely overhauling my C++ Fundamentals course at Pluralsight. Of course I updated everything for C++20, but I also added a module on error handling options, tweaked most demos, and lightened the overall look and feel. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Here's the table of contents:

Leaving pointers almost till the end may seem like a shock, but this is how I teach C++ these days and it really works well.

As always, if you need a trial code, look for the image in the sidebar here to get a free trial and give it a whirl! I had a great time writing and recording it and hope you enjoy watching it.

Kate

Maybe you hadn't heard? There's going to be a C++ conference in Toronto this summer. It's very exciting! I'm helping to arrange it. We've got a great venue (the King Edward) and are busy building a program right now that includes breakouts, workshops on concurrency, generic programming, and game development, plus entertainment in the evenings and plenty of special extras. I want to see Canadian C++ programmers well represented, and hope we attract people from further afield as well. Toronto in the summer is warm, fun, and light well into the evening.

Right now, the early bird price of $925 is in effect. After we announce the full program in April, the regular price will be $1250. So you can save a lot of money if you trust us to put together a great conference program for you (and we will!). You'll save enough to be able to pay for the speaker dinner, a conference Tshirt, and so on. And you'll let us know that we'll get the attendees we need to put on a great show.

Registering early helps us do things like make deposit payments to our vendors. We don't have a surplus-from-last-year, because this is our first year. So support from the community will really help. Why not check your schedule for the third full week of July (the conference is the 17th to 20th, and there are two-day workshops over the weekend of the 15th/16th) and arrange now to join us?

Kate

I have missed conferences for a long time now. I did a few online talks, but it's not the same, not at all. This year, ACCU are holding their conference as a hybrid event. This means while many will gather in Bristol for all the networking, friendship, serendipity, and other benefits of being in person, others will join us online. I think that is great: for many people traveling to a conference is not an option -- for reasons of money, physical limitations, visa restrictions, and so on -- and being able to attend online is terrific for anyone who can't travel to the conference. For me, it feels safe now to travel. I have traveled twice during the pandemic: to Singapore in Feb 2020, when it was underway but hadn't really reached Canada yet, and to Singapore again in Nov 2020 for urgent family business, complete with two 14 day quarantines and multiple tests. I'll be taking all possible precautions, and I think it's going to be safe.

The schedule has been published and my talk will be Friday afternoon. I've booked my plane tickets and hotel room, and am starting to build out the list of talks I plan to attend and people I want to meet. By the way, Guy Davidson will also be there (doing a keynote, in fact) so if you're hoping to get your copy of Beautiful C++ signed, that's a good opportunity! I think there will probably be a table for #include <C++> but even if there isn't, watch our for our shirts and say hi!

I'm going to talk on Abstraction Patterns: things I've learned to spot in code that show a missing abstraction. Unlike the sort of "business objects" that you design at the start of a greenfields project or a major expansion, you don't need deep business knowledge and a long meeting with a business analyst to design these: the code will show you what to do. Come and see what I've found and if it can help you.

Kate

It's true! I helped to write a book! Another book! (Do not ask me what this brings the total to, I truly do not know.) This one is about some of the C++ Core Guidelines.

Opinions vary on when it will be available: maybe the last week of 2021, maybe early 2022. You can pre-order from the publisher if you can't wait. There will be both an ebook and a paper version.

It's Guy Davidson who wrote it really; I have been a sort of editor and suggester and inspirer most of the time. If you liked my CppCon 2017 talk, 10 Core Guidelines You Need to Start Using Now, you will love this book, and not just because it's three times as many guidelines. Guy has included explanations of the 30 guidelines we chose, along with plenty of examples, the occasional diagram, and stories that put them into context and show you why it matters how you write certain constructs and why you should avoid some aspects of the language entirely. We are delighted that both Bjarne Stroustrup and Herb Sutter, who edit the Core Guidelines, reviewed the book, gave us helpful comments on the text, and wrote a foreword and an afterword for us as well.

I learned things writing this. You will learn things reading it. It may well change the way you approach code. That is one of our goals. The other is to get you trusting the guidelines and dipping into them when you have decisions to make about how to implement something. If these 30 are useful and good (and they are!) then imagine what else is waiting for you when you're ready!

 Please spread the word far and wide.

Kate

ps: the full title is quite a mouthful. We're thinking of RainbowFlower as a nickname for the book. What do you think?

This summer has featured a lot of personal busy-ness and not a lot of work things to announce. One nice thing that has happened is my renewal as an MVP.

According to various "kate bio.txt" files kicking around my hard drive , I was first awarded in January 2004. So it will be a while yet until the blue 20 year marker arrives. The program has changed a lot over the years, but it's still relevant to me and a great source of information from the Visual C++ team.

Kate