CppNorth, The Canadian C++ Conference 2025

To accelerate machine learning research and to unlock the potential for cutting-edge in-game models, Ubisoft started using Microsoft’s open-source inference library ONNX Runtime in their proprietary engines.
This session offers insights into using this solution in game dev scenarios: performance topics, build requirements and processes, threads and memory management, library licenses, open-source contributions and the overall organization around this initiative.

The integration of C++20's new ranges library into JavaScript runtimes presents a promising avenue for enhancing performance and code clarity. We delves into how ranges can simplify the handling of collections and sequences in JavaScript engines such as Node.js and Cloudflare workerd. By leveraging lazy evaluation offered by C++20 ranges, JavaScript runtimes can achieve more efficient data processing, reducing both memory footprint and execution time. We explore the application of ranges in optimizing Node.js, showing how they can be used for tasks such as data transformation, filtering, and iteration with less boilerplate code. We examine the benefits of ranges in terms of code readability and maintainability, which are critical for the large teams working on these engines. We provide practical guidance on how developers can begin to incorporate ranges into their projects, considering both the technical and educational aspects of this transition. Our analysis concludes that while there's an adjustment period for developers, the long-term advantages in performance and ease of development make C++20 ranges an invaluable tool for modernizing JavaScript runtimes.

Type erasure is a powerful concept in C++ that allows us to work with heterogeneous types while hiding their concrete details behind a generic interface. In this talk, we will explore how the C++ Standard Library employs type erasure in constructs like std::function, std::shared_ptr, and std::any to provide flexible and efficient solutions for managing types at runtime. Further, we will unveil the hidden cost of using these constructs.
We will start by building our own version of std::function, which will help demystify how it can store and call any callable object, regardless of its type. Then, we'll look at how std::shared_ptr uses type erasure to maintain type safety via dynamic dispatch of the deleter. Finally, we will delve into std::any, some times claimed the modern void*, and explore a different technique of type erasure.

Modules are the most impactful new addition to C++20 since they affect every developer. The other Big Five—concepts, ranges, coroutines, and three-way comparison—affect major segments of C++ users but not necessarily everyone.

This talk is a detailed, pragmatic discussion that uses simple to complex examples. It touches on the detailed workings of modules and build systems, particularly for GCC, Clang, and CMake. (Sorry, no MSVC since I'm on Linux.) At the end, attendees will have a comprehensive understanding of C++20 modules and be equipped to apply this knowledge to their projects.