Dimensional Data

Hello C++ Developers. In today’s round-up of recent posts on LearnCPlusPlus.org we examine some of the alignment-related features of Modern C++, known as Alignment Support. These alignment features can be used with a modern C++ Compiler that supports C++11, C++14, C++17, and greater.  When we talk about ‘alignment’ in C++ it means a set of hints or instructions that tell the compiler to place the physical representation of data structures and variables in memory so that they line up at specific intervals of bytes – the underlying digital representation of all data items. Alignment tells the compiler and linker to add additional ‘space’ to a value in memory so that the next object begins ‘nicely’ on a particular memory boundary. This week, we teach you what is Alignment Support, what is alignment in C++, how we can use std::align, alignof, alignas, what is meant by a generalized constant expression (constexpr), and what is a forward Declaration enum enumeration. Before everything, let’s take a look at a recent article by Senior Embarcadero Product Manager David Millington where he discusses what we hope to see next in coming C++ Builder features. Learn what’s new next coming C++ Builder According to David’s post, C++ Builder is aiming to include some amazing features; CLANG v15, support for C++20 and a lot of C++23 features, Win64 primary OS, new code completion, Visual Assist C++ navigation and refactoring, and lots more. What’s Coming for C++Builder: An Amazing Preview Disclaimer: All new features and improvements discussed in posts regarding future versions of RAD Studio are not committed until completed, and GA released. Note also that a few weeks ago, Embarcadero also announced the release of RAD Studio 11 Alexandria Release 3, also known as RAD Studio 11.3, along with Delphi 11.3 and C++Builder 11.3. This release is focused on quality and improvements, building on the great new features in RAD Studio 11 Alexandria three previous releases. What are the important features of the C++11 standard in modern programming? The C++11 standard introduced alignment support as one of the many features of a Modern compiler for the C++ programming language. One of the new features of this support is a new keyword align std::align which is used to get a pointer aligned by the specified alignment for a size in bytes in consider with size of the buffer. In the first post, we explain how we can use align  https://learncplusplus.org/how-to-use-stdalign-in-modern-c/ Another part of Alignment support support is a new keyword alignof which is used for the alignment requirement of a type. In the next post, we explain how we can use alignof in Modern C++. https://learncplusplus.org/what-is-the-alignof-expression-in-modern-c/ In another example to Alignment Support, we can apply the alignas alignment specifier to define the minimum block size of data types such as the size of structs. In the next post, we explain how we can use alignas in Modern C++. https://learncplusplus.org/what-is-the-alignas-alignment-specifier-in-modern-c/ C++ is really awesome programming language that has many options to use variables in a way which can make your C++ App use less memory and app size. In the next post, we explain what are a constant, a constant expression (constexpr) and generalized constant expressions in modern C++. https://learncplusplus.org/what-are-generalized-constant-expressions-constexpr-in-c/ Understanding how to correct declare variables is important in programming, especially in a modern C++ Application. There is an enumeration method that allows you to easily enumerate (count or determine their place in an order) values in variables. In C++, enumeration is very important and widely used. In C++, […]

Hello C++ Developers. Many times, the “Modern C++” term appears in discussions. In general, “Modern C++” started with the C++11 standards. C++11 is shorthand for C++ that is based on and implements the C++ ISO/IEC 14882 standard. Similarly, C++14 is later standard, C++17 follows that, C++20 after that, and C++23 in the future. Moreover, modern C++ consists of a lot of features of previous C++ like C++98 and before. Personally, I think Modern C++ is only modern if you are developing modern apps for today’s latest operating systems and their devices – but within the industry “modern C++’ specifically means the program code is written to take advantage of those later standards. These standards listed above are not enough alone to develop modern apps. You need to be using the latest modern C++ compiler and IDE with C++ tools that use and support these standards. For example, the latest RAD Studio, C++ Builder 11.3 has a substantial collection of new features (including C++11, C++14, and C++17 features), but goes way beyond those syntactic standards and augments your programming toolbox with GUI features, Modern UI visuals with many skins, High-Res Bitmap Tools, 500+ free and 3rd party libraries and tools for different modern needs, database connectivity tools, REST tools to simplify and automate interactions with REST servers, deployment tools to get your apps into the app stores and user’s machines, and multi-OS Multi-Device support. The latest 11.3 release of RAD Studio is focused on quality and a broad range of improvements. Learn what’s new in RAD Studio, C++ Builder 11.3 Embarcadero announced the release of RAD Studio 11 Alexandria Release 3, also known as RAD Studio 11.3, along with Delphi 11.3 and C++Builder 11.3. This release is focused on quality and improvements, building on the great new features in RAD Studio 11 Alexandria three previous releases. What are the important features of the C++11 standard in modern programming? In C++, logical errors – where something in the program code should be true or false, can be very difficult to spot and track down because the code looks correct but the flaw in in how it is being used programmatically. The static_assert method is one way to check that an expression which should evaluate to true or false at a given point is actually doing that. In the first article we describe how to use static_assert in C++ and what it does. https://learncplusplus.org/what-is-static-assertion-and-how-to-use-static_assert-in-c/ C++ has some really great features for being able to define different types of C++ variables and structure. One of the most used and very useful arrays in C++ is the std::vector. If you know arrays in C and C++, then containers are a modern and very flexible form of arrays in C++. If you want to initialize containers like vector, list, map, etc. you need use std::initializer_list. It can be used with an appropriate C++ tool that compiler supports the C++11 standard and above like C++14, or C++17, etc. It is also very useful with templates and in the next article, we describe the std::initializer_list. https://learncplusplus.org/how-to-learn-initializer_list-stdinitializer_list-in-modern-c/ In C++, enumeration is very important and widely used. Enumeration in C++ can be done with the enum keyword which can be used to create unscoped and scoped enumerations. C++11 and above has modern enumeration methods that can be easily used in a modern C++ Code Editor and compiler. In the next post, we explain what strongly typed enums in C++ are […]

Every year, the “Modern C++” term appears in many discussions. In general, the “Modern C++” term started with the release of the C++11standards. Since that time, the C++14, C++17, and C++20 standards followed. In the future C++23 is on the horizon already. Modern C++ consists of a lot of features of previous C++ standards too and, of course, those of the C Programming language from which C++ evolved. Maybe we should ask though, exactly what is modern C++ in 2023? Table of Contents What is Modern C++? What is the current version of Modern C++? What is the difference between modern C++ code and Modern C++? What is Modern C++ in 2023 Are there some examples of Modern C++? What is Modern C++? To most people, Modern C++ means the program code is written to take advantage of those later standards within the industry. The phrase “Modern C++” term is not a brand, specific standard or ‘kind ‘flavor’ of C++ but generally it means that the C++ code, compiler and linker, support at least the C++11 standards. C++11 is shorthand for C++ syntax and features that are based on and implement the C++ ISO/IEC 14882 standard. Some of new C++11 features are called ‘Modern’ and if a developer is developing application by using these compiler standards, then the source can be referred to as “Modern C++” or “Modern C++ source”. Note that C++11 marks the beginning of Modern C++ but much of the code you will see written today will use some of the great features of C++14, C++17, and C++20. C++23 is the next published standard which is set to replace C++20 as the ‘current’ standard in December 2023. What is the current version of Modern C++? At the time of writing (April 2023) the current Modern C++ standard is C++20 although C++23 is ‘feature complete’. What is the difference between modern C++ code and Modern C++? Personally, I think “modern C++” (with a lowercase m) is only modern if you are developing modern apps for today’s latest operating systems and their devices – but within the industry “Modern C++’ (uppercase M) specifically means the program code is written to take advantage of C++11 and later standards. These standards listed above are not enough alone to develop modern apps. You need to be using the latest modern C++ compiler and IDE with C++ tools that use and support these standards. For example, the latest RAD Studio, C++ Builder 11.3 has a substantial collection of new features (including C++11, C++14, and C++17 features), but goes way beyond those syntactic standards and augments your programming toolbox with GUI features, Modern UI visuals with many skins, High-Res Bitmap Tools, 500+ free and 3rd party libraries and tools for different modern needs, database connectivity tools, REST tools to simplify and automate interactions with REST servers, deployment tools to get your apps into the app stores and user’s machines, and multi-OS Multi-Device support. The latest 11.3 release of RAD Studio is focused on quality and a broad range of improvements. What is Modern C++ in 2023 On Windows, iOS and Android, C++ Builder 11.3 is packed with a load of great features. RAD Studio and C++ Builder 11.3 support the C++11, C++14 and C++17 standards with some excellent modern tools and libraries. See What’s New In C++ Builder […]

This year is definitely starting to look like the year of the AI uprising and it’s only a question of time before it makes it into IDE software of all types. The ball really started rolling with a dramatic investment by Microsoft of at least $10 billion in OpenAI, the company behind the admirably powerful ChatGPT, Dall-E and similar advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML). It was a brave move by Microsoft and it appears to have wrong-footed Google’s parent company Alphabet who experienced what appeared to be some major publicity SNAFUs while promoting Bard, their own ChatGPT rival. There’s now a bit of goldrush going on with AI and it’s hard not to notice the proliferation of apps which incorporate machine learning or AI (or at least claim to) in their titles. But the big question is, is a sufficiently powerful AI really going to steal our jobs? Table of Contents Is LSP, code completion and error insight a form of AI? Why is ChatGPT such a huge leap forward in AI? What can ChatGPT AI do for software developers? I’m a computer studies student, can ChatGPT do my homework for me? Is it possible to incorporate ChatGPT into the RAD Studio IDE? How to incorporate ChatGPT AI into the RAD Studio IDE Where can I get the source code for Marco Geuze’s RAD Studio add-on? More ways to add the power of ChatGPT AI to your IDE Am I going to lose my job to a ChatGPT AI? Is LSP, code completion and error insight a form of AI? Well, that’s a good question! RAD Studio 11.3 has a lot of great new features and improvements in it. In particular the Language Server Protocol or LSP had a ton of things done to improve its quality and reliability. The LSP is the ‘magic’ behind the mechanism which suggests potential functions, methods and properties when you type a dot or hit CTRL and SPACE. It’s intrinsic to the intelligence of useful functions like error insight and, unless you know better, it can look like intelligence. In fact, the similar feature in Microsoft products is called ‘intellisense’, clearly a name picked by someone with a flair for alliterative rhyming. RAD Studio 113 focused on stability and quality especially in the areas of code completion and LSP Sometimes LSP, code completion, and error insight can really appear like it’s alive (especially in 11.3 which I’ve found to be rock-solid and a huge improvement) – and it’s definitely useful, perhaps even essential, when coding in todays’ complicated software development industry. The reality is though that it’s just a very fast and smart indexing tool which has a specialized focus on the particular task with which it is helping, which in the case of RAD Studio is Delphi and/or C++ code. Clever, useful, but not ever going to be sentient…yet. Why is ChatGPT such a huge leap forward in AI? ChatGPT is a MASSIVE language model with billions of tokens (elements of knowledge). Compared to previous incarnations of similar large language models (LLMs) it might actually be orders of magnitude larger. The recently released ChatGPT4 took things even further and now understands images as well as having a bunch of safeguards to prevent it being fooled into giving answers it shouldn’t. […]

A few weeks ago we released RAD Studio and C++Builder 11.3, a quality release that’s been met with wide praise as the best of any recent version. This builds on several releases of 11.x, including our dedicated C++ quality release, 11.1.5. With that quality background, we want to share our plans for the future of C++Builder and C++ within RAD Studio. We see questions around our plans for C++Builder in multiple areas: support for newer C++ standards like C++20 and C++23; improving the debugger; resolving issues linking large projects; STL quality; productivity like code completion, navigation, and refactoring; and support for other platforms, like Android or Linux. We are addressing these with two major steps: Upgrading Clang – but not just ‘upgrading’ Clang, we’re taking a very different approach that we refer to as ‘doing it right’; Integrating key features of Visual Assist into C++Builder This, both what we’re doing and the approach to what we’re doing, is very exciting. Read on – not just for what we’re doing, or why, but even screenshots showing it in progress! Table of Contents Upgrading to Clang 15 Runtimes and STL Release Plans Continually Up To Date Clang Upgrade in Summary Preview Integrating Visual Assist Preview Modern Clang, COFF, and Visual Assist?! Upgrading to Clang 15 C++Builder’s compilers are based on Clang, extended with our language extensions. The language extensions are for interoperability with Delphi: if you did not know, the two languages can be compiled into the same application, and even have classes in C++ inherit from classes defined in Delphi. C++ can also use and refer to Delphi-implemented code through translated headers, as well as use Delphi-isms like properties. In 2018, we upgraded to Clang version 5, which provided C++17 support. Now, we’re upgrading our current Clang, Clang version 5, to Clang 15 – a massive jump in features and C++ compatibility. But this is not an upgrade like our previous upgrade (from 3.3 to 5 in 2018), in many ways. In the past we’ve always had somewhat of our own way of doing things. For example, we use ELF64 (typically a Unix/Linux object file format) as the object file format on Win64 with DWARF as the debug info format, for various reasons. C++Builder has its core differences, which are our benefits: Delphi compatibility; the language extensions; the things that let us develop forms and frames and use the VCL and FireMonkey – and those differences are valuable. But our current Clang implementation contains some custom elements with no inherent value, and is slowly becoming a maintenance cost without adding to the overall amazing benefits of C++Builder. We are different from platform conventions for legacy reasons. But if we were to follow platform conventions, it would mean less customisation in our toolchain for us to maintain, fewer custom tools, and significantly increased compatibility for you. As a result the Clang upgrade is planned not to be an upgrade of our existing compiler with all extra material, but an upgrade of the core key architecture of our compiler. This means we plan to adopt a more platform-standard approach: to emit COFF object files (the ‘native’ or by-convention Windows format); use the PDB format for debugging; use the LLVM linker not ilink; and not only does this mean we can focus on the […]

RAD Studio devine din ce în ce mai bun cu fiecare lansare. Cu o echipă mare de dezvoltatori care adaugă noi capabilități, remediază erori și abordează literalmente sute de solicitări ale clienților zilnic, fiecare actualizare a versiunii RAD Studio reprezintă un salt înainte nu doar pentru IDE și setul de instrumente, ci și pentru afacerea dvs. O lansare marcantă RAD Studio 11 Alexandria, în special, a fost o lansare importantă. Iată ce se bucură utilizatorii RAD Studio 11 de la lansarea sa și actualizările ulterioare: Support for 4k high-dpi screens Support for Windows 11 and all the latest target platform versions VCL Styles visibility at design-time Support for Apple’s M-Series Silicon chips Enhanced support for remote collaboration Ce se întâmplă în versiunea 11.3? RAD Studio 11.3 este o versiune axată pe calitate, care aduce IDE-ul la egalitate cu cele mai recente actualizări ale platformei țintă – iOS 16 (doar pentru Delphi), Android 13 și macOS Ventura, toate lansate după RAD Studio 11.2, precum și Ubuntu 22 LTS și Windows Server 2022. RAD Studio 11.3 introduce, de asemenea, noi funcții interesante, cum ar fi o nouă componentă Mobile Biometric Authentication pentru aplicațiile mobile FireMonkey. De asemenea, introduce îmbunătățiri ale lanțului de instrumente, cum ar fi mutarea tuturor depanatoarelor de platformă non-Windows în Delphi și C++ la arhitectura LLDB. O altă caracteristică nouă foarte puternică este ToolsAPI pentru Editorul de cod. Această nouă caracteristică îmbunătățește stabilitatea IDE cu pluginuri de la terți, deoarece hack-urile nu mai sunt necesare și încurajează utilizarea mai multor suplimente de la terți, extinzând foarte mult flexibilitatea IDE-ului RAD Studio. Sunt multe de văzut în versiunea RAD Studio 11.3 Alexandria. „Vedeți Ce este nou în RAD Studio 11.3 Alexandria – Reluare webinar” videoclipul de pe canalul de Youtube Embarcadero este o modalitate excelentă de a afla mai multe despre ce se află în noua versiune. Și în cazul în care sunteți încă pe o versiune anterioară a RAD Studio 11, iată o listă completă de ceea ce ați putea beneficia cu o licență și un set de instrumente complet actualizate. De asemenea, puteți afla mai multe despre beneficiile mentenanța RAD Studio de actualizare Pe aceasta pagina. Dacă acesta nu este un motiv suficient de bun pentru a reveni la actualizarea mentenanța RAD Studio, iată câteva motive suplimentare: De ce este util să rămâneți la abonamentul de actualizare? Dezvoltarea software-ului evoluează cu o viteză vertiginoasă. Noi versiuni de platformă, noi cerințe pentru utilizatori, noi amenințări și noi piețe apar aproape în fiecare zi. Echipa Embarcadero este conștientă de faptul că toți clienții își doresc să fie pe deplin actualizați și să fie consecvent pe abonamentul de actualizare, dar uneori circumstanțele ne împiedică. De aceea, am alcătuit o combinație unică de oferte speciale pentru a crea o oportunitate pentru clienții care apreciază abonamentul de actualizare să se țină din urmă. Mai multe despre asta mai jos. Dar mai întâi, să ne uităm la beneficiile adesea subestimate ale rămânerii la abonamentul de actualizare și la riscurile de a nu face acest lucru. Acces la cele mai recente caracteristici, remedieri și upgrade-uri Fiecare nouă lansare RAD Studio vine cu sute de remedieri de erori raportate de utilizatori, împreună cu noi funcții fie selectate de echipa de dezvoltare, fie solicitate de clienți. Fiecare versiune nouă oferă performanțe îmbunătățite, capacitate mai mare, securitate sporită […]

The C++ programming language is one of the most popular programming languages. C++ is the highly evolved and modern app building software comes with a lot of libraries and with header files to define functions in these libraries. Libraries are one of the main important parts of the C and C++ languages. For example, you can use library – or in C++ – for the standard input output functions. You can use all C functions included in this library, i.e. printf, gets, sscanf, getchar, and many C functions in your C or C++ applications, although the safer and more modern C++ versions in the header are recommended. Today, you can develop C console apps or full GUI C++ apps with modern libraries, including database connections, 2D-3D visualizations, you can use artificial Intelligence libraries like machine learning, deep learning libraries and more. Libraries are also used in C++. Do you know that C libraries can be used in C++ applications too? There are very modern libraries with GUIs like VCL (vcl.h) and FMX (fmx.h) libraries in C++ Builder. The latest C++ Builder can be used to develop these kinds of apps in Windows 11, including x86, x64, and mobile device operating systems. You can add modern GUIs with styled skins, and produce apps which apply effects to digital images easily for example sepia effects, glow effects, etc. The C programming language can be used to develop apps with C or C++ SDKs and with free tools like Dev-C++ and C++ Builder Community Edition. Table of Contents What happens when a C or C++ program works with libraries? How a classic C program works with libraries How C++ works with libraries? What is a library? How C++ Builder works with libraries What is the Run Time Library (RTL)? What is the Visual Component Library (VCL)? What is the FireMonkey Library (FMX)? What does a ‘framework’ mean in C++ programming? What other functionality can we add to our C++ programs with libraries? How to download C++ Builder program to work with libraries? What happens when a C or C++ program works with libraries? When we develop an application in the C or C++ language, we often need to use pre-defined variables and functions to do different operations. For all these, generally, we need to include standard libraries that have these pre-defined variables and functions. Each library in the C or C++ language includes functions and definitions for commonly used purposes such as file or stream handling, memory management and so on. Libraries in C and C++ programming are pre-compiled files that are mostly included in the lib (library) folder, ready to be linked into your app. Generally, their extension is *.lib. or *.a. Libraries can also be external in the form of a dynamically linked library (DLL) which is loaded when you app is initialised. Libraries use a collection of header files that include these pre-defined variables and functions. Header files (*.h files in C and *.h , *.hpp files in C++). Libraries may require many header files, for example, the VCL and FMX libraries of C++ Builder are huge libraries, and they include many header files to enable our programs to create, display, and use a GUI-based user interface. By referencing the library’s functions using the header file we are telling the compiler and linker that the library’s […]