Herb Sutter on software development
I am deeply saddened to report that this weekend, far too soon, we lost Gor Nishanov: a friend and colleague, an extraordinary software engineer, and a long-serving member of the C++ standards committee. Gor was always intelligent and witty, but above all he was kind and generously helpful to others. I especially appreciated the times Continue reading Gor Nishanov (1971-2026)
Four weeks ago I was in downtown Manhattan for the world premiere event for C++: The Documentary. It was great to see two theaters full of enthusiastic C++ developers, and getting to mingle with them all before and after the film. Afterwards we had a live panel: Bjarne Stroustrup, Gabriel Dos Reis, Nina Ranns, Eric Lubin, Continue reading New York panel video is now online
Adopted this week in draft C++29: Complete catalog of all undefined behavior in C++. Contract pre/post support for virtual functions. Defaulting (=default) for postfix increment/decrement. Designated initializers for base classes. Python-style .lookup(key) for associative containers. And more…
C++: The Documentary premiered today on YouTube, and it was great to be on the live chat with Bjarne and many other key folks who participated in C++ s history. I m honored to have been one of hundreds of people who have played a part in advancing Bjarne s wonderful project over the years. If you haven t Continue reading C++: The Documentary released today
Back in October, I wrote Schneier on LLM vulnerabilities, agentic AI, and trusting trust' about fundamental architectural weaknesses in current LLMs and agents, and why I personally don t yet trust AI agents with my credentials. At the end, I wrote: I love AI and LLMs. I use them every day. I look forward to letting an Continue reading Poll: Have you observed AI agents doing harm?
At the London C++ meetup last month, I participated on a panel where each panelist gave a short introductory presentation. My 7-minute intro (aka lightning talk ) just got posted you can view it here. The one-sentence blurb: C++ is accelerating, and C++26 is built for what developers need now. Also check out the longer Continue reading My 7-min lightning talk is online: Why C++ is growing, and why…
BeCPP just posted this video of my talk at their March 30 Symposium. This is the first time I ve given this material on camera it s extension of themes in my New Year s Eve blog post, with major updates because some big industry changes happened in the first quarter of 2026. This talk is different Continue reading My BeCPP talk video posted: C++ Growing in a world of competition, safety, and AI
News flash: C++26 is done! 🎉 On Saturday, the ISO C++ committee completed technical work on C++26 in (partly) sunny London Croydon, UK. We resolved the remaining international comments on the C++26 draft, and are now producing the final document to be sent out for its international approval ballot (Draft International Standard, or DIS) and Continue reading C++26 is done! — Trip report: March 2026…
2025 was another great year for C++. It shows in the numbers Before we dive into the data below, let’s put the most important question up front: Why have C++ and Rust been the fastest-growing major programming languages from 2022 to 2025? Primarily, it’s because throughout the history of computing “software taketh away faster than Continue reading Software taketh away faster than hardware giveth:…
In the next week, I will be giving talks on C++ reflection in Singapore (Thursday night) and Sydney (Sunday night). If you re local, please RSVP! I look forward to seeing many of you there. Singapore C++ Users Group November Meetup Thursday November 20, 6:30pm to 9:30pmClifford Pier, Fullerton Bay Hotel80 Collyer Quay, Singapore 049326 Citadel Continue reading Speaking in Singapore (Thursday 20…
On Saturday, the ISO C++ committee completed the first of two final fit-and-finish meetings for C++26, in our meeting in Kona, USA. What we have in the C++26 working draft represents exactly the set of features we have consensus on so far; the goal of these last two meetings is to fix bugs and otherwise Continue reading Trip report: November 2025 ISO C++ standards meeting (Kona, USA)
Last month, I was having dinner with a group and someone at the table was excitedly sharing how they were using agentic AI to create and merge PRs for them, with some review but with a lot of trust and automation. I admitted that I could be comfortable with some limited uses for that, such Continue reading Schneier on LLM vulnerabilities, agentic AI, and trusting trust
I’m running this poll to gather data, both for myself and for other interested C++ committee members. I m curious to see what you all report! Please let us know what your current project is doing, and thank you for participating. The poll will close on Friday night.
In two weeks I ll be giving a talk at the local C++ meetup here in peaceful, quirky, dog-walking, frisbee-throwing, family-friendly Portland, Oregon, USA. PDXCPP Monthly MeetupOctober 21, 2025 @ 7:00pmLocation: Siemens EDA in Wilsonville Which talk will I give? That s a great question, and there s a poll about that! At CppCon last month, I Continue reading Speaking on October 21 at PDXCPP:…
I usually only give one new talk a year, but this year I volunteered to give a second new talk at CppCon on a topic I haven t spoken on before: draft C++26 contracts. Thank you to all the experts, including the actual implementers and people who are for and against having contracts in C++26, for Continue reading My other CppCon talk video is now available: The Joy of C++26 Contracts (and Some…
My CppCon keynote video is now online. Thanks to Bash Films for turning around the keynotes in under 24 hours! C++ has just reached a true watershed moment: Barely three months ago, at our Sofia meeting, static reflection became part of draft standard C++. This talk is entirely devoted to showing example after example of Continue reading Yesterday s talk video posted: Reflection — C++ s…
Thanks to C++ on Sea for inviting me to speak in June! The talk video is now live, linked below. It was recorded just 48 hours after the Sofia meeting ended, with key updates hot off the press. Note: Next month at CppCon, I will be going even deeper and broader on reflection. There, I ll Continue reading My C++ on Sea talk video posted: Three Cool Things in C++26
A unique milestone: Whole new language Today marks a turning point in C++: A few minutes ago, the C++ committee voted the first seven (7) papers for compile-time reflection into draft C++26 to several sustained rounds of applause in the room. I think Hana Ms. Constexpr Dusíková summarized the impact of this feature best a Continue reading Trip report: June 2025 ISO C++ standards meeting (Sofia,…
I recently contributed a guest post on my employer s blog about the importance of the almost-feature-complete C++26 draft standard: Sea change in C++: Why opportunities abound It starts by summarizing a talk I gave recently, about how C++26 is poised to do what C++11 did over a decade ago: usher in a new era of Continue reading Living in the future: Using C++26 at work
For more background on safety and security issues related to C++, including definitions of “language safety” and “software security” and similar terms, see my March 2024 essay “C++ safety, in context.” This essay picks up our story where that one left off to bring us up to date with a specific focus on undefined behavior Continue reading Crate-training Tiamat, un-calling Cthulhu:Taming the UB…
On Saturday, the ISO C++ committee completed the second-last design meeting of C++26, held in Hagenberg, Austria. There is just one meeting left before the C++26 feature set is finalized in June 2025 and draft C++26 is sent out for its international comment ballot (aka “Committee Draft” or “CD”), and C++26 is on track to Continue reading Trip report: February 2025 ISO C++ standards meeting…
After my code::dive talk in November, the organizers also recorded an extra 9-minute interview that covered these questions: Here it is
The Biden administration just issued another executive order (EO) on hardening U.S. cybersecurity. This is all great stuff. (*) (**) A lot of this EO is repeating the same things I urged in my essay nearly a year ago, C++ safety in context here s a cut-and-paste of my Call(s) to action conclusion section I Continue reading New U.S. executive order on cybersecurity
Next week, on January 15, I ll be speaking at the University of Waterloo, my alma mater. There ll be a tech talk on key developments in C++ and why I think the language s future over the next decade will be exciting, with lots of time allocated to a fireside chat / interview session for Q A. The Continue reading Speaking at University of Waterloo on January 15
Less than two weeks from now, on January 13 I ll be speaking at the New York C++ meetup in Midtown East (Clinton Hall at 230 E 51st Street). I ll be giving a condensed update of my recent Peering forward: C++ s next decade talk, so that there ll be plenty of time for Q A please have Continue reading Speaking at New York C++ meetup on January 13
[Updates: Clarified that an intrusive discriminator would be far beyond what most people mean by “C++ ABI break.” Mentioned unique addresses and common initial sequences. Added “unknown” state for passing to opaque functions.] Here is my little New Year’s Week project: Trying to write a small library to enable compiler support for automatic raw union member access checking. The problem, and what’s…
Two weeks ago, Bjarne and I and lots of ISO committee members had a blast at the code::dive C++ conference held on November 25, just two days after the end of the Wrocław ISO C++ meeting. Thanks again to Nokia for hosting the ISO meeting, and for inviting us all to speak at their conference! Continue reading My code::dive talk video is available: New Q A
On Saturday, the ISO C++ committee completed the third-last design meeting of C++26, held in Wrocław, Poland. There are just two meetings left before the C++26 feature freeze in June 2025, and C++26 is on track to be completed two more meetings after that in early 2026. Implementations are closely tracking draft C++26; GCC and Continue reading Trip report: November 2024 ISO C++ standards meeting…
Starting today I m excited to be working on a new team, with my C++ standards and community roles unchanged. I also wanted to write a few words about why I m excited about continuing to invest my time heavily in C++ s standardization and evolution especially now, because I think 2024 has been a pivotal year for Continue reading A new chapter, and thoughts on a pivotal year for C++
In early September I had a very enjoyable technical chat with Steve Klabnik of Rust fame and interviewer Kevin Ball of Software Engineering Daily, and the podcast is now available. Update: I asked them to please change the Rust vs C++ title to Rust and C++ and they kindly did so. Thanks! Here s the info
Boy, Jens Weller turns these things around quickly! Thanks again, Jens, for having me on your Meeting C++ Live show. I ve put a list of the questions, with timestamped links, below All the questions and answers, with links 00:19 What are you up to with C++ currently / what keeps you excited? 04:04 Sean Baxter Continue reading My AMA yesterday is up on YouTube
Tomorrow I ll be joining Jens Weller for a live AMA on Meeting C++ online. The coordinates are: I m looking forward to your technical questions about C++26 evolution, cppfront, Rust, reflection, safety and security, concurrency and parallelism, and software in general and optionally questions about SF/fantasy novels and cinema, but then I might ask some similar Continue reading Live AMA tomorrow…
Yesterday I gave the opening talk at CppCon 2024 here in Aurora, CO, USA, on Peering Forward: C++ s Next Decade. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Bash Films and DigitalMedium pulling out all the stops overnight to edit and post the keynote videos as fast as possible, it s already up on YouTube right now, below! Continue reading My CppCon keynote yesterday is available on YouTube
Here s a super simple question: How do I write a parameter that accepts any non-const std::istream argument? I just want an istream I can read from. (This question isn t limited to streams, but includes any similar type you have to modify/traverse to use.) Hopefully the answer will be super simple, too! So, before reading further: Continue reading Reader Q A: What s the best way to pass an istream…
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Davis Herring, Jens Maurer, Richard Smith, Krystian Stasiowski, and Ville Voutilainen, who are all ISO C++ committee core language experts, for helping make my answer below correct and precise. I recently got this question in email from Sam Johnson. Sam wrote, lightly edited: That s a great question. Cppreference is correct, and for Continue reading Reader Q A: What does…
Over the winter and spring I spent a bunch of time building my essay C++ safety, in context and the related ACCU 2024 safety keynote, and on behind-the-scenes work toward improving C++ memory safety that you ll be hearing more about in the coming months (including a lock-free data structure that s wait-free and constant-time for nearly Continue reading cppfront: Midsummer update
On Saturday, the ISO C++ committee completed its fourth meeting of C++26, held in St Louis, MO, USA. Our host, Bill Seymour, arranged for high-quality facilities for our six-day meeting from Monday through Saturday. We had over 180 attendees, about two-thirds in-person and the others remote via Zoom, formally representing over 20 nations. At each Continue reading Trip report: Summer ISO C++…
Also in April, I was interviewed by Jordi Mon Companys for Software Engineering Daily, and that interview was just published on the SE Daily podcast. Here is a copy of the page s additional details, including a transcript link at bottom. The U.S. government recently released a report calling on the technical community to proactively reduce Continue reading Podcast: Interview with Software…
Many thanks to ACCU for inviting me back again this April. It was my first time back to ACCU (and only my second trip to Europe) since the pandemic began, and it was a delight to see many ACCUers in person again for the first time in a few years. I gave this talk, which Continue reading April talk video posted: Safety, Security, Safety[sic] and C/C++[sic]
On Friday, I sat down with Kevin Carpenter to do a short (12-min) interview about my ACCU talk coming up on April 17, and other topics. Apologies in advance for my voice quality: I ve been sick with some bug since just after the Tokyo ISO meeting, and right after this interview I lost my voice Continue reading Pre-ACCU interview video is live
With the winter ISO meeting behind us, it s onward into spring conference season! ACCU Conference 2024. On April 17, I ll be giving a talk on C++ s current and future evolution, where I plan to talk about safety based on my recent essay C++ safety, in context, and progress updates on cppfront. I m also looking forward Continue reading Effective Concurrency course upcoming talks
Moments ago, the ISO C++ committee completed its third meeting of C++26, held in Tokyo, Japan. Our hosts, Woven by Toyota, arranged for high-quality facilities for our six-day meeting from Monday through Saturday. We had over 220 attendees, about two-thirds in-person and the others remote via Zoom, formally representing 21 nations. That makes it roughly Continue reading Trip report: Winter ISO C++…
Scope. To talk about C++’s current safety problems and solutions well, I need to include the context of the broad landscape of security and safety threats facing all software. I chair the ISO C++ standards committee and I work for Microsoft, but these are my personal opinions and I hope they will invite more dialog Continue reading C++ safety, in context
I generally give one or two courses a year on C++ and related technologies. This year, on April 22-25, I ll be giving a live online public course for four half-days, on the topic of high-performance low-latency coding in C++ — and the early registration discount is available for a few more days until this Thursday: Effective Continue reading Effective Concurrency: Live online course in April
Today, the ISO C++ committee completed its second meeting of C++26, held in Kona, HI, USA. Our hosts, Standard C++ Foundation and WorldQuant, arranged for high-quality facilities for our six-day meeting from Monday through Saturday. We had over 170 attendees, about two-thirds in-person and the others remote via Zoom, formally representing 21 nations. Also, at Continue reading Trip report: Autumn…
My Thursday CppCon talk is now online. Note: There s already a Reddit thread for it, so if you want to comment on the video I suggest you use that thread instead of creating a new one. At CppCon 2022, I argued for why we should try to make C++ 10x simpler and 50x safer, and this Continue reading My new CppCon talk is on YouTube: Cooperative C++ Evolution Toward a TypeScript for C++
Since the 2022-12-31 year-end mini-update and the 2023-04-30 spring update, progress has continued on cppfront. (If you don’t know what this personal project is, please see the CppCon 2022 talk on YouTube for an overview, and the CppNow 2023 talk on YouTube for an interim update.) I ll be giving a major update next week at CppCon. I hope Continue reading cppfront: Autumn update
Thanks again to C++ Now for inviting me to speak this year in glorious Aspen, Colorado, USA! It was nice to see many old friends again there and make a few new ones too. The talk I gave there was just posted on YouTube, you can find it here: At CppCon 2022, I argued for Continue reading My C++ Now 2023 talk is online: A TypeScript for C++
Minutes ago, the ISO C++ committee finished its meeting in-person in Varna, Bulgaria and online via Zoom, where we formally began adopting features into C++26. Our hosts, VMware and Chaos, arranged for high-quality facilities for our six-day meeting from Monday through Saturday. We had nearly 180 attendees, about two-thirds in-person and the others remote via Continue reading Trip report: Summer…
Since the year-end mini-update, progress has continued on cppfront. (If you don’t know what this personal project is, please see the CppCon 2022 talk on YouTube.) This update covers Acknowledgments, and highlights of what s new in the compiler and language since last time, including: Acknowledgments: 267 issues, 128 pull requests, and new collaborators I want to Continue reading cppfront: Spring…