CppCon 2018

We say that interfaces should be easy to use and hard to misuse. But how do we get there? In this talk I will demonstrate how using declarative techniques in APIs, functions, and plain old “regular” code can help.

We’ll look at what is meant by “declarative style” in C++; explore why declarative interfaces are desirable and how to construct them; and take an in-depth look at which features of C++ help us write in a declarative style.

I want to deconstruct C++ a bit, examine what we’re doing and what makes the good parts good, and from that reconstruct some best practices. Many of us are already writing code following piecemeal modern advice such as “no raw loops”, or “almost always auto”, or C++ core guideline recommendations. In many cases, this advice translates to writing more declarative code; being deliberate about exploring and using declarative techniques gives us insight we can apply more widely.