Make everything const by default (not necessarily constexpr). This includes everything from functions, to local variables (most important) to function parameters. const greatly helps with compiler optimisations and leads to a lot of code being resolved at compile time and reducing aliasing & duplication. Using const is also beneficial in...
Jun 2018 — 3 minute read
One of the reasons to prefer a switch case declaration to a bunch of if-else’s is that the compiler can generate a jump table. This is not always the case. Take the example below. Code gen can be found here: https://godbolt.org/g/V7Qdci // Individual compares int switch_2_cases(int val) { switch(val) {...
Jun 2018 — 2 minute read
Yes, you read that right. Allow me to explain. Code should be self explanatory. This means that the combination of your variable/class/function names, code structure and class relationships should automatically convey what’s going on without having to explain anything everything. In simple terms if someone else has to read a...
Jun 2018 — 5 minute read
In certain cases, when accessing certain class / struct members, it can be costly if you’re reading the member multiple times. Especially in cases with branches the compiler may not store the object in a register i.e. it will not evaluate the access once. Take this case for example: void...
May 2018 — 2 minute read
In quite a few languages, you can annotate function arguments when calling one eg: requestHandler(url:"http://....", retry:false); For better or worse, C++ doesn’t have such a feature and instead this is what one ends up with: RequestHandler("http://...", false /*retry*/, nullptr /*custom_data*/); While this is good practice, you can often do without...
May 2018 — 2 minute read
Statistical Comparison & Analysis of Performance Metrics Introduction Before You Measure Choosing the Appropriate Metrics Sampling Data Viewing Raw Data Analysing the Distribution Rejecting a Hypothesis Comparing Numbers Summary References 1. Introduction Say you have a computer program / routine / function / test / loop, basically anything that runs...
May 2018 — 26 minute read
As you may have deduced from the title, I’ll be starting a C++ Tip of the Week inspired by the Google Abseil Tip of the Week, which I highly recommend reading. Very similar to Google, I’ll start off with some basic stuff and then move on to some advanced stuff...
May 2018 — 2 minute read