Recap:

• GoingNative 2012 is a global live C++11-fest that kicks off this Thursday at 9:30am U.S. Pacific time.
• 350 live in the room. Unlimited free worldwide attendance – both live and on demand.

Note that because of technical limitations, watching the livestream requires Silverlight (watching the stored videos later on demand will not). Silverlight is supported by all modern desktop browsers, but it’s a short download if you don’t have it already – so if you’re watching live, check in a little early to make sure you don’t miss a thing. If you’re watching on-demand, no worries – videos will be available in various popular formats as usual for Channel 9.

 

As we count down to launch, another tidbit from the “fun facts” department:

 

Myth: Software conferences are dying. Especially C++ conferences are dead.

Fact: Number of exclusively-C++ conferences in 2012: Three.

• Feb 2-3 (worldwide): GoingNative 2012.  The world’s first globally simulcast C++ convention. Free livestream + on-demand for everyone. 100% about C++.
• C++ Now! (May 13-18, Aspen, CO, USA).  100% about C++.
• C++ and Beyond 2012 (August 5-8, Asheville, NC, USA).  100% about C++.

Other conferences also include C++ content, such as April 24-28’s ACCU which has over 20 C++-specific talks.

 

C++11-fest minus 3…

Recap:

• GoingNative 2012, the world’s first globally simulcast C++ convention, starts with Bjarne Stroustrup’s opening keynote “C++ Style” this Thursday at 9:30am U.S. Pacific time (time zone converter).
• In-room attendance is sold out, but worldwide attendance is unlimited and free – all sessions will be livestreamed, and later after a short processing delay will also be available on demand.

 

As we count down to launch, here’s something from the “fun facts” department about GN2012:

 

Myth: C++ is for older developers.

• Fact: Age distribution for the live audience at my September 2011 talk on Writing Modern C++ Code: roughly half under 30.
• Fact: Age of the youngest in-person GoingNative 2012 attendee… wait for it…: 15 years old.

 

C++11-fest minus 5…

GoingNative 2012 is sold out for in-person attendees, but online attendance is free and unlimited – live-stream and on-demand. Watch the main page for links.

GoingNative 2012 is a 48 hour technical event for those who push the boundaries of general purpose computing by exploiting the true capabilities of the underlying machine: C++ developers. Distinguished speakers include the creator of C++, Bjarne Stroustrup; C++ standards committee chair, Herb Sutter; C++ template and big compute master, Andrei Alexandrescu; STL master Stephan T. Lavavej; LLVM/Clang developer Chandler Carruth; distributed and parallel computing expert Hans Boehm; and C++ library design expert and ISO committee member Andrew Sutton.

Although the majority of the audience will be on the web, here are some interesting statistics about the 350 people who are coming in person and will be with us in the room:

Developers attending in person will arrive from 18 countries and 23 US states. They are professional native developers from industry, from academia, from small businesses to very large corporations. They are CTOs, architects and scientists. They are students and coders. And they are all in for a real native treat!

Come join us live starting with Bjarne Stroustrup’s opening keynote on Thursday February 2 at 9:30am sharp U.S. Pacific time (here’s a World Clock meeting planner for other time zones). We have a special something extra in the first couple of minutes, so you won’t want to be late.

JG Question

1. When should you use shared_ptr vs. unique_ptr? List as many considerations as you can.

 

Guru Questions

2. Why should you always use make_shared to allocate objects whose lifetimes will be managed by shared_ptr? Explain.

3. What’s the deal with auto_ptr?

The solution to GotW #102 is now live.

The speakers and sessions for GoingNative 2012 (Feb 2-3, Redmond WA USA) have now been posted. With the focus squarely on C++11 on all compilers and platforms, I think this is going to be the C++ event of the first half of 2012, and I’m very pleased with the caliber of our speakers and their technical and industry breadth.

Note: 85% Sold Out. All sessions will be publicly available online for free, both livestream and on-demand for posterity. But to attend in person and be in the (very nice) room, tickets are just $112 and currently 85% sold out; I expect the rest to go quickly now that the talks are posted, so if you’ve been on the edge, this week is a good time to register here.

Speakers and Sessions. Here’s a summary of the talk titles; see the page for the full session list with abstracts. The bulk of the program is all about the new C++11 standard as it exists today. On Day 2, we’ve also included a couple of forward-looking topics that C++ developers are frequently asking about and we felt were important to cover – especially with the key experts already in the building. The program also includes two interactive panels where you’ll be able to ask and tweet questions for the speakers.

Day 1 (Theme: C++11 Today)

• Opening Keynote: C++11 Style (Bjarne Stroustrup, TAMU)
• Threads and Shared Variables in C++11 (Hans Boehm, Hewlett-Packard)
• STL11 – Magic && Secrets (Stephan T. Lavavej, Microsoft)
• Variadic Templates are Funadic (Andrei Alexandrescu, Facebook)
• Panel: The Importance of Being Native (Andrei Alexandrescu, Hans Boehm, Bjarne Stroustrup, Herb Sutter)

Day 2 (Theme: C++11 Today and Tomorrow)

• C++11, VC++11 and Beyond (Herb Sutter, Microsoft)
• C++11 and Clang (Chandler Carruth, Google)
• Static If I Had a Hammer (Andrei Alexandrescu, Facebook)
• A Concept Design for C++ (Bjarne Stroustrup and Andrew Sutton, TAMU)
• Panel: Ask Us Anything! (all speakers)

As promised, the focus on learning and using Standard C++11 – what it is, where it’s at, and where it’s going. I’m really excited to be a part of this, and I hope you enjoy it. In my original post I listed several ways your team can benefit from this material remotely, and I encourage you to plan for it, live or otherwise. I look forward to seeing many of you there in person.

Hilarious and apt. Nice work, Alena and Jim.