Contracts and Safety for C++26 : An expert roundtable

We are excited to be able to host a very special event to kick off the new year!

Key members of the C++ Standards Committee's Contracts Study Group (SG21) are converging on London to present a roundtable discussion of the Contracts proposal (P2900), which is readying for inclusion in C++26 after a six year gestation, as well as safety related features, such as Erroneous Behaviour - and how these intersect. There are plenty of misconceptions and half-truths floating around that are muddying the perception of these critical language features. Let's get it all straight and hear from the experts themselves.

We are privileged to be able to welcome Timur Doumler, John Lakos, Lisa Lippincott, Joshua Berne, Mungo Gill, Michael Wong and our very own Gašper Ažman.

This is going to be one of those events where, in years to come, you'll be able to say, "I was there in person". With that in mind we've been able to hire the large room at CodeNode, our old venue from pre-Covid times. So there should be no waitlist this time (unless literally everyone registers 😂).

There will also be free drinks available as well as a selection of pizza.

Schedule:

18:00 Doors open

18:45 "Intro and news" - Phil Nash

19:00 Roundtable discussion starts

20:45 (or before) conclusion

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About the panelists:

John Lakos, author of "Large-Scale C++ Software Design" (Pearson, 1997), servesas a senior architect at Bloomberg in New York City and mentor for C++ Software Development worldwide. He is also an active voting member of the C++ Standards Committee’s Evolution Working Group. Previously, Dr. Lakos directed the design and development of infrastructure libraries for proprietary analytical financial applications at Bear Stearns. For 12 years prior, Dr. Lakos developed large frameworks and advanced ICCAD applications at Mentor Graphics, for which he holds multiple software patents. His academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Computer Science ('97) and an Sc.D. in Electrical Engineering ('89) from Columbia University. Dr. Lakos received his undergraduate degrees from MIT in Mathematics ('82) and Computer Science ('81). He is the author of the multi-volume book "Large-Scale C++", the first volume of which, "Volume I: Process and Architecture" (Pearson, 2020), is currently available, and subsequent volumes are forthcoming. He is the co-author of "Embracing Modern C++ Safely" (Pearson, 2021) along with Vittorio Romeo, Rostislav Khlebnikov, and Alisdair Meredith.

Lisa Lippincott designed the software architectures of Tanium and BigFix, two systems for managing large fleets of computers. She's currently assistant chair of the numerics study group of the C++ standardization committee. In her spare time, she studies mathematical logic, and wants to make computer-checked proofs of correctness a routine part of programming.

Timur Doumler is the co-host of CppCast and an active member of the ISO C++ standard committee, where he is currently co-chair of SG21, the Contracts study group. Timur started his journey into C++ in computational astrophysics, where he was working on cosmological simulations. After completing his PhD in astrophysics, he moved into the audio and music technology industry, where he has been working for over a decade and co-founded the music tech startup Cradle. In the past, Timur also worked for JetBrains, first as a developer on CLion's C++ parser and later as a Developer Advocate for C++ developer tools. Currently, Timur lives in Finland, where he works as an independent consultant and organises the monthly C++ Helsinki meetup.

Gašper Ažman is the Ecosystem Engineer at Citadel Securities, where he takes care of pollinators, flowers, and the code-biome. SG4 (Networking) co-chair, and is currently working on constexpr type ordering, std::execution, and contracts for C++.

Joshua Berne has been programming in C since he read K&R over the weekend to participate in a computer science competition in high school without having to do it in Pascal. He's been programming in C++ since he read Bjarne Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language" the following week because of how hard that competition ended up being. Though most of his career has been spent writing high-performance distributed financial systems in Java, C++ has remained his favorite language ever since. Joshua now works at Bloomberg on its core C++ libraries -- most notably their internal contract-checking framework -- where he's lucky enough to be able to focus most of his actual time on research, writing, and improving the C++ language for future generations (especially his son).

Mungo Gill studied Mathematics in the days when computers were not part of the course, and he had to learn programming “on the job” after university. Mungo has had a varied career spanning such places as the UK Home Office (learning FORTRAN and K&R C on VAX and Sun boxes), Sony Music (doing ANSI C and learning C++ from Bjarne Stroustrup’s “The C++ Programming Language”), Citigroup (initial forays into highly performant multithreaded C++), Lehman Brothers, Google, Citadel, Bloomberg, and a local alpaca farm. With over 20 years of C++ experience, Mungo represents the National Standards Association of Ireland on the C++ Standardisation Committee. For relaxation, Mungo enjoys walking his dogs through the countryside around his home in rural Ireland.

Michael Wong is a Distinguished Engineer/VP focusing on parallel programming, AI, safety-critical systems, and C++ standardization. He has over two decades of experience leading the design and implementation of complex software projects, with a particular emphasis on heterogeneous computing, compiler technology, and performance optimization. Michael has a deep understanding of C++ language evolution, serving as the Canadian Head of Delegation for ISO C++ and chairing several key study groups, including SG14 (Games Dev/Low Latency/Financial) and SG19 (Machine Learning). He is a Senior leader inside ISO ++ being a Founding Member of the Technical Direction group, and Founding Director of ISOCPP Foundation. He played a pivotal role in the development and adoption of SYCL, a C++-based heterogeneous programming framework now integrated into Intel's oneAPI. Prior to Intel, Michael served as CEO of OpenMP, transforming it into a leading organization for parallel programming standards. He is a recognized expert in safety-critical design, contributing to standards like ISO 26262, MISRA C++, and AUTOSAR. Michael is a sought-after speaker and author, known for his ability to bridge the gap between complex technical concepts and practical application. He is passionate about fostering collaboration across industry and academia to advance the state of C++ and ensure its continued relevance in the evolving landscape of software development.