CppNorth, The Canadian C++ Conference 2025

Get ready for a crazy fun & informative talk! Boost your C++ code's performance by utilizing the full power of your computer’s built-in cache. In this talk, we'll delve into the basics of caches, spatial and temporal cache locality, and practical techniques for optimizing cache access. We'll also explore cache prefetching, branch prediction, and false sharing, providing examples modelled on real-world production code and performance benchmarks to drive home each point. By the end of this talk, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and tools to better optimize your code for cross-platform performance gains.

This talk explores five widely taught C++ coding guidelines and the subtle but profound way that the special member functions interact with class invariants, all with the ultimate goal of learning how to write better code.

A pipeline is a chain of processing elements such as functions, threads etc., arranged so that the output of each element is the input of the next. We often encounter this pattern in practice. C++ also allows us to write in this way, e.g. using the `std::ranges` library with its characteristic overloaded pipe `operator |`. But modern C++ enables much more and this will be discussed in this talk. First, we'll show how to implement a custom pipeline framework that employs `std::expected`, available since C++23. Secondly, we will show pipelines in the serial version, where the functions communicate the results of their calculations, as well as in the parallel version, in which at least one thread operates on each link. In the last case we will need synchronized queues – and here we will also show how `std::expected` can be used again to create a flexible interface. Everyone is welcome!

Dynamic memory allocations are ever-present in most programs. A simple look at the RAM usage of the browser you are currently using to read this abstract will likely tell you something.
But what of the runtime performance cost? How much (or little) should you be concerned about it and keep it in mind while implementing new features or designing software?

In this talk, we will present a set of about 10 guidelines to keep in mind when dealing with dynamic memory allocation and mitigate its potential performance impact on execution speed. From quite simple to somewhat advanced, everyone should be able to walk away from this talk having learnt something.

C++ is a powerful language, but with great power comes… plenty of pitfalls. Memory management quirks (even when using smart pointers), subtle undefined behaviors, and bug-prone code can silently introduce dangerous behaviors—only to surface at the worst possible moment in production. While static code analysis can catch some of these issues, it requires proper usage and adherence to warnings, and even then, it won’t catch everything. Many of these traps can lead to hard-to-debug issues, safety problems, and security vulnerabilities.
In this talk, we’ll explore some of the most notorious C++ pitfalls and sharp edges, discussing strategies to avoid them and write safer, more resilient code. We’ll walk through both design best practices and C++ coding guidelines to help you navigate the language’s trickier corners with confidence.