Google Hosts C++ Standards Meeting

MAR 13, 2007
Post by Matt Austern, Software Engineering Team

Two weeks ago, Google hosted a two-day informal meeting to discuss Concepts, a major new language feature for the next version of C++. Concepts are the foundation of generic programming, but until now they haven't been part of the actual C++ language. Last week's meeting was part of a multi-year effort to improve C++ by adding explicit support for Concepts. Papers have already been given at the Principles for Programming Language Symposium (pdf) and the Object Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications Conference (pdf).

Attendees at last week's meeting made significant progress: the group finalized many details of Concepts and resolved concerns about implementation issues. Keep an eye on the C++ Standards Committee Website, as the final version of the concepts proposal will be available in just a few weeks.


[Photo caption: Attendees at the C++ Concepts meeting came from both industry and academia. Left to right: Martin Sebor (Rogue Wave), Chris Lattner (Apple), John Spicer (EDG), Herb Sutter (Microsoft), Andrew Lumsdaine (Indiana University), Michael Wong (IBM), Bjarne Stroustrup (Texas A&M), Gabriel Dos Reis (Texas A&M), Thomas Witt (Zephyr Associates), Mat Marcus (Adobe), Steve Clamage (Sun), Sean Parent (Adobe), Lawrence Crowl (Google), Nathan Myers (Aspera Software), Doug Gregor (Indiana University), Jaakko Jaarvi (Texas A&M), Matt Austern (Google).]