The allocation, use, and passing of memory has always had a performance cost and this has had a major impact on the evolution of the standard library and ultimately the language itself. We are rediscovering forgotten lessons from C and it is helping reshape what modern C++ looks like.
For a long time C++ has tried to work at a higher level with memory, hoping to move beyond the simple constructs C provided. The standard library promised a universe where containers are general purpose and implement the optimum algorithms, freeing engineers to focus on higher levels of design.
Delivering this vision has proved difficult. Creating a string class that performs well has been an ongoing challenge for library implementers, and as they have moved through multiple designs, the lessons learned have shaped the language itself and are instructive to anyone writing high performance code.
We will take a look at the historical attempts to address performance in the standard library and the shift away now taking place from one size fits all and non-owning interfaces, and look at the rediscovered lessons to working with memory effectively.
