C++ Reflection Is Not Contemplation - Andrei Alexandrescu - CppCon 2024

https://cppcon.org​
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C++ Reflection Is Not Contemplation - Andrei Alexandrescu - CppCon 2024
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The C++ community has long been interested in reflection, and we have made significant progress in adding core reflection capabilities to the language. While there is emerging clarity on the querying side of reflection—inspecting existing code artifacts programmatically—there is considerably less consensus on the generative aspect: using reflection insights to emit new code. As a result, current proposals showcase a stark contrast between well-polished reflection query capabilities and limited code generation capabilities.

Reifying only the reflection of preexisting code in an Ouroboros manner leads to a curious circularity that hinders the synthesis of new artifacts. This talk provides examples that demonstrate the necessity of generative capabilities in reflection and discusses current and upcoming proposals for generative extensions in C++ reflection.
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Slides: https://github.com/CppCon/CppCon2024/...

Sponsored by JetBrains: https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/
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Andrei Alexandrescu

Andrei Alexandrescu is a Principal Research Scientist at NVIDIA. He wrote three best-selling books on programming (Modern C++ Design, C++ Coding Standards, and The D Programming Language) and numerous articles and papers on wide-ranging topics from programming to language design to Machine Learning to Natural Language Processing to fundamental algorithms. Andrei holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from University "Politehnica" Bucharest. He is the Vice President of the D Language Foundation.
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CppCon is the annual, week-long face-to-face gathering for the entire C++ community. The conference is organized by the C++ community for the community. You will enjoy inspirational talks and a friendly atmosphere designed to help attendees learn from each other, meet interesting people, and generally have a stimulating experience. Taking place this year in Aurora, Colorado, near the Denver airport, and including multiple diverse tracks, the conference will appeal to anyone from C++ novices to experts.
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