On January 8th, 2004, I got an email from the MVP Lead for Visual C++ at Microsoft, asking if I would like to be an MVP. After checking to see what that meant, I said yes, and was accepted into the program. I was renewed every year, and at some point after half a year, making just over 20 years coming up at the end of June. I'm still the only MVP called Kate.

I went out for MVP Summit that first year, and some RD stuff at the same time. Here's a production still from "Red Chair Green Wall" - the plan had been to greenscreen in some image related to where we each were from, but then in the end, we didn't. I'm including it to show how much younger I was then!

I've decided not to renew this year. Usually, people making this announcement do so because they're no longer doing the sorts of things MVPs do. But I'm still teaching, speaking, helping folks online, writing the occasional book, helping to run a conference, and all the technical things as well. What's changed isn't so much me, it's the program. I always valued my connection to the Visual C++ team very highly. These days, the team maintains those connections with developers whether they are MVPs or not. Events like Pure Virtual C++, among other things, can keep me informed as well or better than the program can. The MVP program is all Azure this and AI that and exciting details and announcements about conferences that just aren't relevant to me. I'm sure they are useful and exciting tools and events, for someone. I am focused on my little piece of the world and don't need more information on the stuff I've decided to ignore.

Joining the program was definitely life changing. I had some wonderful times, learned things I really needed to learn in as quick and enjoyable a way as you can imagine, met terrific people and raised my professional profile. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I'm just not going to keep doing it, because for me personally the benefits are dwindling.

I'm truly grateful to John Perry, for bringing me into the program, to Karen Young for inspiration and funny stories, to Sasha Krsmanovic for everything, to Sim Chaudhry for cheer and support, and to Betsy Weber for being the last one standing. Most of all, I'm grateful to my fellow C++ MVPs, and the Canadian MVPs from all technologies, for being great people to spend time with and learn from. There are too many to mention -- I hope you all know you really made a difference.

Sure, I could have cropped it a little tighter, but then you wouldn't see the picture in the background of me with Bill Gates What a marvelous pair of decades!

Kate

During CppNorth, I took a few minutes away from the conference to do an interview for Pluralsight. The host was my dear friend Julie Lerman and we had a great time. We talked about my courses, #include <C++>, CppNorth, Carbon, and a lot more.

I thought you might like to see a few "production stills" of how I set up the space to do the recording. It's always a challenge in a hotel room to get good light, keep the bed out of frame, and be reasonably near an available power plug. I did it!

Yes, I have my ring light clipped to a lampshade. And I brought the light, my good mike, and my mike stand to Toronto with me in my suitcase. Getting the laptop up high enough and at the right angle involved a little foraging in the room

This was the view from my chair. (That desktop background is the view out of the Bridge of Sighs, in Venice.)

And here's the final video.It's about seventeen minutes; please do share the link with others.

Kate

The recordings from ACCU have been appearing over the last few weeks and now both of my talks are up:

• C++ And Beyond: Discussion is a panel discussion with Vittorio Romeo, Kevlin Henney, Nico Josuttis, and me, moderated by Bryce Lelbach. The fun starts just six minutes in when Nico declares C++ "fundamentally broken." Still, there is some positive and hopeful content. We should think about the languages we use and what we want from them. C++ is a language that changes, which has consequences, both good and bad.
• Become a Better Programmer by Using Words and Ideas From Casual Gaming is my closing keynote. Not a lot of syntax in here, but a new way of looking at some of the things you do at work, and how to approach those, that you may find helpful.

Going to conferences in person has many advantages, and I'm glad we're solidly back to doing that. But for the ones you can't attend, you can at least watch the sessions, and I highly recommend that you do.

Kate

The agenda for the Qt World Summit has now been released.

I'll be doing a half-hour version of a talk I've given only once before, "Am I a Good Programmer?" Many people have told me this is something they worry about pretty often.So at the end of November, we can discuss it together.

I've been lucky enough to speak in Berlin at several different conferences and I'm looking forward to being back there again. Would you like to join me? You can even get a discount of 10% if you use the code QtWS23_Kate -- register here.

Kate

Day 3 began with a terrific keynote from Jessica Kerr, I can write the code. But getting something done is another matter. I was so thrilled when she agreed to come and do a keynote, and this one didn't disappoint. I took pictures of several slides, always a good sign.

After a break it was time for Tony Van Eerd with Value Oriented Programming Part V: Return of the Values. There was plenty of pop culture here but also some darn good advice about making good abstractions, and what's good about them. Then out for lunch again ... I deliberately chose something different on my second trip to the market.

The afternoon started with Conor Hoekstra and New Algorithms in C++23. Conor makes these things look easy -- perhaps they actually are? Then the closing keynote, from Timur Doumler, called Contracts, Testing, and the Pursuit of Well Defined Behaviour. We sure have plenty of undefined behaviour to deal with:

Another amazing day in Toronto! Let's talk about what sessions I went to so far.

I started with Patrice Roy's Moving an Existing Project to C++ 20 for Fun, Beauty… and Results!. The first part set up a problem and showed some C++17 code to handle it. I was a little impatient during this part, because it was a lot of code and I would have done some of it differently (because I am doing C++20 which is the point of the talk) but I did notice that it was carefully written to be fast and readable. Then the fun started as things got shorter, simpler, and (proven with some measuring) faster using C++20 goodies.

Next was Ben Deane with Calendrical C++: std::chrono, History, Mathematics and the Computus. This very entertaining talk took a problem few of us really face in code (when is Easter next year?) and used it to show off what chrono can do with dates. Probably my favourite slide was the one to show when Thanksgiving is. When you get to it, you'll see why.

The first break of Day 1 was the "Canada Snacks" -- see the published menu for details. I've never put a blackberry on a Nanaimo bar, but they certainly were delicious.

I enjoyed And Then() Some(T) by Victor Ciura a lot, even though I had to duck out early. If you would say no to "are you using higher order functions today?" this is the talk for you. Because you almost certainly are, and knowing that will make a lot of things easier to understand.

For the last talk of Day 1 I had planned to attend Rud Merriam's A Journey into Ranges, Views, Pipelines, and Currying but some last minute schedule juggling as speakers ran into travel problems put it up against Timur Doumler with C++ and Safety. Safety is a timely topic, so I'll wait for the video to watch Rud's talk. Timur did an interesting review of what the word "safety" even refers to, why governments are starting to have an opinion, and whether C++ can ever be proven safe -- and why you should care.

We wrapped up the day with the conference dinner, a nice mix of old friends and new, speakers and not, and good food. I enjoyed the conversations a lot!

Day 2 started with a keynote from Ben Deane, Optimizing for Change. Some excellent advice in this talk even if I did find the dark background a bit of a challenge on some of the code slides.

I had an online meeting I couldn't miss, so I didn't go to another morning session. After my call I walked over to the St Lawrence Market to get some lunch. I wish more conferences were fully in the towns where they are held, and made it simple for attendees to walk out and experience a little sunshine and access a wider variety of food options.

The afternoon had more tough choices, but I went to Why Good Code is Relative by Daniel Withopf. A good summary of why you can't "just write it the fast way" and some solid code samples about how to actually follow advice like "avoid heap allocations."

Then I went to Get() into Retroactive Static Reflection by Vincent Tourangeau. This was a slideless talk, bopping around in a lot of surprisingly-readable code that showed how to get properties, introspection, and a lot of other things you think C++ doesn't have -- and all with C++11. I know I'll be watching the video when it's out because there were a few moments where I wanted to rewind and see something again!

For my last session of Day 2 I went to Writing C++ to Be Read by Vincent Zalzal. I really enjoyed this talk! It's the sort of talk I would give, but Vincent included a number of excellent points I had not made or heard before. He also had fantastic slides, with highlights to point out the parts he wanted to draw attention to, and good examples.

That left the Lightning Talks. Wow, these were so good! As always, some were funny, some showed something we needed to learn, and some were highly personal. I've seen a lot of lightning talks and I always get a lot from them. But I don't remember lightning talks from student volunteers and members of the organizing committee anywhere else. Worth staying up for!

Next, one more day!

Kate

So great that the second year of CppNorth has really happened, and started so darn well, too!

We started planning year two even before year one had happened, with a "next year" folder, and never really stopped. If you thought it was challenging to plan and host a conference with a pandemic still underway, that's nothing compared to doing the same thing during -- what are we calling it? -- an "economic downturn"? Getting attendees and sponsors took a lot of work, and luckily a pile of people who aren't me did that work.

Me, I showed up on Day 1 and did a keynote. I really enjoyed it, too. I'll post again when the video is up ... if you're an attendee you should be able to get the slides any time now.

This is 90 minutes of "stuff I've learned" like "Take Notes in Meetings" and "Always Take a Moment to Check" (aka Shift Left but for people) and the like. Many people told me it was helpful, which is very reassuring.

Kate