Article

Specifying C++ concepts

Authors:

Gabriel Dos Reis,

Bjarne StroustrupAuthors Info & Claims

POPL '06: Conference record of the 33rd ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages

Pages 295 - 308

https://doi.org/10.1145/1111037.1111064

Published: 11 January 2006 Publication History

Abstract

C++ templates are key to the design of current successful mainstream libraries and systems. They are the basis of programming techniques in diverse areas ranging from conventional general-purpose programming to software for safety-critical embedded systems. Current work on improving templates focuses on the notion of concepts (a type system for templates), which promises significantly improved error diagnostics and increased expressive power such as concept-based overloading and function template partial specialization. This paper presents C++ templates with an emphasis on problems related to separate compilation. We consider the problem of how to express concepts in a precise way that is simple enough to be usable by ordinary programmers. In doing so, we expose a few weakness of the current specification of the C++ standard library and suggest a far more precise and complete specification. We also present a systematic way of translating our proposed concept definitions, based on use-patterns rather than function signatures, into constraint sets that can serve as convenient basis for concept checking in a compiler.

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Cited By

Stroustrup B(2020)Thriving in a crowded and changing world: C++ 2006–2020Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33863204:HOPL(1-168)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386320
Zuo ZLiu ZWang CYou ZHu Q(2019)Apla Generic Constraint Matching Detection and Verification2019 24th International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS)10.1109/ICECCS.2019.00030(210-219)Online publication date: Nov-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICECCS.2019.00030
Belyakova J(2016)Language Support for Generic Programming in Object-Oriented Languages: Peculiarities, Drawbacks, Ways of ImprovementProgramming Languages10.1007/978-3-319-45279-1_1(1-15)Online publication date: 17-Sep-2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45279-1_1
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Specifying C++ concepts
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program constructs

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

POPL '06: Conference record of the 33rd ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages

January 2006

432 pages

ISBN:1595930272

DOI:10.1145/1111037

General Chair:
Greg Morrisett
Harvard University, USA
,
Program Chair:
Simon Peyton Jones
Microsoft Research, UK

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 41, Issue 1
Proceedings of the 2006 POPL Conference
January 2006
421 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/1111320
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2006 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 11 January 2006

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January 11 - 13, 2006

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Cited By

Stroustrup B(2020)Thriving in a crowded and changing world: C++ 2006–2020Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33863204:HOPL(1-168)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386320
Zuo ZLiu ZWang CYou ZHu Q(2019)Apla Generic Constraint Matching Detection and Verification2019 24th International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS)10.1109/ICECCS.2019.00030(210-219)Online publication date: Nov-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICECCS.2019.00030
Belyakova J(2016)Language Support for Generic Programming in Object-Oriented Languages: Peculiarities, Drawbacks, Ways of ImprovementProgramming Languages10.1007/978-3-319-45279-1_1(1-15)Online publication date: 17-Sep-2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45279-1_1
(2015)ReferencesMonte Carlo Frameworks10.1002/9780470685167.refs(711-717)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2015
https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470685167.refs
Chen SErwig MWalkingshaw E(2014)Extending Type Inference to Variational ProgramsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/251819036:1(1-54)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2518190
Bachelet BMahul AYon L(2013)Template metaprogramming techniques for concept-based specializationScientific Programming10.1155/2013/58139721:1-2(43-61)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1155/2013/581397
Miller HHaller PBurmako EOdersky M(2013)Instant picklesACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2544173.250954748:10(183-202)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2544173.2509547
Miller HHaller PBurmako EOdersky MHosking AEugster PLopes C(2013)Instant picklesProceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Object oriented programming systems languages & applications10.1145/2509136.2509547(183-202)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2509136.2509547
Holk EPathirage MChauhan ALumsdaine AMatsakis N(2013)GPU Programming in RustProceedings of the 2013 IEEE 27th International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing Workshops and PhD Forum10.1109/IPDPSW.2013.173(315-324)Online publication date: 20-May-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/IPDPSW.2013.173
Sutton AMaletic J(2013)Emulating C++0x conceptsScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2012.10.00978:9(1449-1469)Online publication date: Sep-2013
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2012.10.009
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