Preface

The C++ of today provides programmers with the ability to write expressive and robust code, while still making it possible to target almost any hardware platform, and at the same time meet performance-critical requirements. This makes C++ a unique language. Over the last few years, C++ has turned into a modern language that is more fun to use and has better defaults.

This book aims to give you a solid foundation to write efficient applications, as well as an insight into strategies for implementing libraries in modern C++. I have tried to take a practical approach to explaining how C++ works today, where features from C++17 and C++20 are a natural part of the language, rather than looking at C++ historically.

This second edition was written to cover new features added in C++20. I have included features that I think fit well with the rest of the content and the focus of this book. Naturally, chapters that discuss new features serve more as an introduction and contain fewer best practices and well-proven solutions.

At the time of publishing this book, the compiler support for some C++20 features presented is still experimental. If you read this book near to the publication date, the chances are that you will have to wait for some features to become fully supported by your compiler.

Many chapters span a wide range of difficulty. They start with the absolute basics and end with advanced topics such as custom memory allocators. If a section is not relevant to you, feel free to skip it or come back to it later. Apart from the first three chapters, most chapters can be read independently.

Our main technical reviewer, Timur Doumler, has had a big impact on this new edition. His enthusiasm and brilliant feedback have led to some chapters from the first edition being reworked to explain topics more thoroughly and in more depth. Timur has also been a vital contributor when it comes to incorporating new C++20 features into the chapters where they fit naturally. Select parts of the book have also been reviewed by Arthur O'Dwyer, Marius Bancila, and Lewis Baker. It has been a true pleasure to have had such excellent reviewers on this project. I hope you enjoy reading this new edition as much as I have enjoyed writing it.