CppNorth 2024

C++ is not an easy language. While its intention, especially with the new Standards since C++11, is to shift more work from the developer to the compiler, this is sometimes perceived as opaque. Knowing what a statement does is vital not only in embedded software development. It is also essential while teaching C++ when questions come up like "when and where are operators involved" or "in which places do we get an implicit type conversion".

Some tools, like Matt Godbolt's Compiler Explorer or Clang's AST dump, can show us the resulting output. However, the resulting output is not C++. This makes it hard for a C++ developer to understand. As a C++ programmer, my first language is, after all, C++. The Clang-based tool C++ Insights (https://cppinsights.io) addresses this. It aims to show the source code with the eyes of a compiler through a source-to-source transformation where the resulting output is still C++. All the intentionally hidden things become visible.

In this talk, I will present how C++ Insights has evolved in the last few years. You will learn how C++ Insights can assist you with teaching or programming. Some awesome new educational transformations can help you understand constructs like C++20's coroutines or visualize object lifetime.