I am very happy to say that we have a speaker for our last meeting before the summer break. Mark Grimes has agreed to give a talk on Compile time and template metaprogramming.
So please do join us for the talk, and the usual beers afterwards. It should be a great evening.
Talk Synopsis
The C++ template system is an amazing tool for writing generic code - the standard library uses it extensively for containers and algorithms that will work with any type.
Early in its inception it was noticed that it could be (ab)used to write patterns that are executed at compile time, and in extreme cases can produce code with zero dynamic logic.
This talk briefly covers the template system, discusses how it can be used to write compile time code and also when (and if) you would want to do so yourself. Recent changes to the C++ standard to help with compile time programming are also presented.
The speaker
Mark taught himself C++ as a teenager in his spare time, and continued with it as a hobby for many years. At one stage he thought he was quite good at it until he took some formal C++ courses and realised he definitely wasn't.
After his PhD running simulations of particle physics experiments he worked as a postdoc for Bristol University managing the simulation code on one of the Large Hadron Collider experiments. Two years ago he left academia and has since co-founded the technology company Rymapt with two former work colleagues.
Mark regularly wastes time trying new ways of coding instead of just doing the work.