Exploring Physical Design in C++ using Macaroni, Boost Build and Modules

Join us at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, December 2nd as willful raconteur Tim Simpson discusses creating and using Macaroni for C++, a tool Meeting C++ once called a "powerful code generator for C++" in a tweet! Macaroni presents a different way to express C++ code that allows aspects of a code base's "physical design" which are necessary for the compiler to get generated automatically, leaving the maintainer free to focus on the logical design of their program. In general, this means you can code in a module like fashion free of header files, but there's more to it than just programmer laziness. For example, if you've ever wished you could easily break down large projects into mulitple shared libraries (especially on Windows with its strange attributes) with minimal work or boilerplate, you might find this talk interesting.

Tim will also try to make the case that Boost Build is actually really cool, demonstrate the portable application of precompiled headers, and end with an overview of Visual C++ 14's implementation of modules that is currently proposed for C++17.

Tim Simpson currently works at Rackspace as the team lead on the Cloud Databases product. He's the current organizer of the Austin C/C++ Meetup as well as part-time salesperson / lackey for Ultra Corp, makers of Ultra Basic. In his spare time he enjoys furthering his dog's education and working on open-source projects such as Macaroni for C++ and Cowsay for Windows.

The talk will take place at Rackspace's Austin office, located on the East side of IH-35 right before Rundberg and after Henna Chevrolet (there is a sign for Rackspace which is visible from the highway). Feel free to park in the same lot as the big Rackspace flag.