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).]
