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Effective Modern C++

Scott Meyers (2014)

Deducing types

• Item1 : Understand template type deduction
• Item2 : Understand auto type deduction
• Item3 : Understand decltype
• Item4 : Know how to view deduced types

Auto

• Item5 : Prefer auto to explicit type declarations
• Item6 : Use the explicitly typed initializer idiom when auto deduces undesired types

Moving to Modern C++

• Item7 : Distinguish between () and {} when creating objects
• Item8 : Prefer nullptr to 0 and NULL
• Item9 : Prefer alias declarations to typedefs
• Item10 : Prefer scoped enums to unscoped enumes
• Item11 : Prefer deleted functions to private undefined ones
• Item12 : Declare overriding functions override
• Item13 : Prefer const_iterators to iterators
• Item14 : Declare functions noexcept if they won’t emit exceptions
• Item15 : Use constexpr whenever possible
• Item16 : Make const member functions thread safe
• Item17 : Understand special member function generation

Smart pointers

• Item18 : Use std::unique_ptr for exclusive ownership resource management
• Item19 : Use std::shared_ptr for shared ownership resource management
• Item20 : Use std::weak_ptr for std::shared_ptr like pointers that can dangle
• Item21 : Prefer std::make_unique and std::make_shared to direct use of new
• Item22 : When using the Pimpl idiom, define special member functions in the implementation file

Rvalue References, Move Semantics, and Perfect Forwarding

• Item23 : Understand std::move and std::forward
• Item24 : Distinguish universal references from rvalue references
• Item25 : Use std::move on rvalue references, std::forward on universal references
• Item26 : Avoid overloading on universal references
• Item27 : Familiarize yourself with alternatives to overloading on universal references
• Item28 : Understand reference collapsing
• Item29 : Assume that move operations are not present, not cheap and not used
• Item30 : Familiarize yourself with perfect forwarding failure cases

Lambda expressions

• Item31 : Avoid default capture modes
• Item32 : Use init capture to move objects into closures
• Item33 : Use decltype on auto&& parameters to std::forward them
• Item34 : Prefer lambdas to std::bind

The Concurrency API

• Item35 : Prefer task-based programming to thread-based
• Item36 : Specify std::launch::async if asynchronicity is essential
• Item37 : Make std::threads unjoinabled on all paths
• Item38 : Be aware of varying thread handle destructor behavior
• Item39 : Consider void futures for one-shot event communication
• Item40 : Use std::atomic for concurrency volatile for special memory

Tweaks

• Item41 : Consider pass by value for copyable parameters that are cheap to move and always copied
• Item42 : Consider emplacement instead of insertion