Whats New in Visual Studio 2012 for C++ Developers
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The document provides a comprehensive overview of the enhancements in Visual Studio 2012 over its predecessor, including IDE improvements, support for C++11 features, and new capabilities for unit testing and code analysis. Key highlights include better IntelliSense, improved debugging experiences with customizable data representation, and significant changes in C++ language features like auto, lambdas, and move semantics. The author emphasizes the evolving landscape of C++ development and the importance of these updates for modern software engineering practices.
->return-type{body}
represent by type std::function<>](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vcpp2012fullstyled-130325020553-phpapp01/85/Whats-New-in-Visual-Studio-2012-for-C-Developers-19-320.jpg)
![Code Analysis
What does it check ?
Uninitialized Reads
HRESULT verification checks
Concurrency Warnings
Format string checks
Correct destructor calls (delete[] vs delete)
Redundant code checks
Many more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a5b9aa09.aspx
Custom code can be annotated to aid code analysis
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182032.aspx
Demo](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vcpp2012fullstyled-130325020553-phpapp01/85/Whats-New-in-Visual-Studio-2012-for-C-Developers-48-320.jpg)
Whats New in Visual Studio 2012 for C++ Developers
- 1. Philipp Aumayr software architects gmbh Web http://www.timecockpit.com Mail philipp@timecockpit.com Visual C++ 2012 Twitter @paumayr Improvements over 2008 Saves the day.
- 2. Intro DI Philipp Aumayr Senior Developer @ software architects (time cockpit) 9-5 -> C#, 5->9 C++, 24/7 VS 2012 Twitter: @paumayr Blog: http://www.timecockpit.com/devblog/
- 3. Motivation Visual Studio 2012 improvements over 2008 New Shell New Editor Better Intellisense Unit Testing Code Coverage Code Analysis #include completion Navigate To Type visualizers
- 4. Motivation C++11 New standard released August 12, 2011 Major overhaul Bjarne Stroustrup: „C++11 feels like a new language“ Visual Studio 2012 has partial support Is updated out-of-band (November CTP adds major language parts) auto, decltype, range-based for loop lambdas, explicit overrides, static_assert nullptr, enum classes, move-semantics, variadic templates, initializer_lists, delegating constructors, explicit conversion operators
- 5. Motivation STL improvements shared_ptr, unique_ptr unordered_set, unordered_map SCARY iterators + container sizes Move Semantics std::async Code Analysis SDL
- 6. Motivation Auto-vectorization Auto-parallelization C++ AMP A lot to learn, but well worth the effort!
- 7. IDE Improvements Multi-monitor support Rewritten in WPF and MEF Improved responsiveness Intellisense works in the background Asynchronous project loading Editor Zooming Navigate-To Call Hierarchy Demo
- 8. IDE Improvements Preview tab Pinned editor windows Ctrl + Q / Search Menu New Solution explorer Scope to this multiple views Find within editor Find all references Demo
- 9. Test Framework Supports writing unit tests for MSTest Test adapters for other test frameworks are available Gtest xUnit++ Test Explorer Window Grouping Code Coverage Demo
- 10. Better Intellisense Uses an SDF (SQL CE database) instead of the ncb Faster More robust Demo
- 11. Type Visualizers (Natvis) Allow customizable data representation in debugger Replaces autoexp.dat Easier to handle, more powerful Create a natvis file Place in either %VSINSTALLDIR%Common7PackagesDebuggerVisualizers (requires admin access) %USERPROFILE%My DocumentsVisual Studio 2012Visualizers Or VS extension folders Files are reloaded at every debugging session No restart required when changing natvis files
- 12. Type Visualizers (Natvis) Example natvis file Allows conditional strings, node expansions, item lists, tree items, synthetic items, etc.
- 13. Break New Editor Better Intellisense Unit Testing Code Coverage Code Analysis #include completion Navigate To Type visualizers
- 15. C++ Styles (Question) C with a C++ compiler? C with classes / inheritance? RAII, Exceptions, Smart pointer? STL? TMP?
- 16. auto Automatically deduces type information Very similar to „var‟ in c# Reduces amount of typing required Reference or Value? Value by default, add & to make it a reference Demo
- 17. decltype Represents the type of the expression decltype(2*3) -> int decltype(a) -> type of a Why? Let types flow! Demo
- 18. Range based for loop New type of for loop Iterates all members of a collection Demo
- 19. Lambdas Anonymous Functions Allows logic to be placed where required Can capture environment General syntax: [capture](parameters)->return-type{body} represent by type std::function<>
- 20. Lambdas Finally make STL algorithms useable Reduces amount of (boilerplate-)code No more functor classes!
- 21. Lambda Captures A Lambda can capture environment Allows the lambda to access and modify state Capture kinds - reference or value - automatic or specific Demo
- 22. override and final Explicitly defines overrides Compiler helps if no method to override is found Helps with refactoring Rename method in base class but not in derived -> derived method no longer overrides Base class from third party! Helps class design Implementers of derived classes can more easily understand which methods to override final can be used on classes to prevent being derived from Demo
- 24. static_assert Tests a software assertion at compile time Especially useful for portable code Assert size of specific structures (x86, x64 issues) Check library versions Used to be accomplished using the preprocessor Demo
- 25. nullptr 0 / NULL used to indicate a null pointer nullptr is of type nullptr_t implicitly assignable to any pointer not assignable to int etc.
- 26. enum classes C++03 enums Not type safe Enums of different types can be compared (basically integers) Storage type int C++11 enum classes Type is compared as well! Underlying type can be chosen
- 27. enum classes C++03 enums
- 28. enum classes C++11 enum classes
- 30. Initializer lists (CTP) Eases construction of non-POD types Finalversion will provide initialize list constructors for STL types Binds {…} syntax to the std::initializer_list<T> type. Current STL does not support it Demo name == “class std::initializer_list<int>”
- 31. variadic templates (CTP) Flexible number of template arguments Usable for template writers n-ary structures (tuples) e.g. make_shared, make_tuple Example: saveprint Beware of dragons ;) Demo
- 32. Move Semantics C++03: many (temporary) class instances Resulted in a lot of copying Constructs to work around Passing complex data structure from function C++11: Move semantics If the copied value is an rvalue reference, the move constructor is called
- 33. Move Semantics Dramatically changes style! C++03 C++11
- 34. Move Semantics Note: right-hand version is valid C++03 code! But advanced programmers avoided it, due to the extra copy involved. Now with C++11: Elegant AND Fast Reconsider the patterns you are used to All STL containers implement move semantics Returning container was unavoidable? -> automatic performance improvement! STL code will have fewer temporary objects Demo
- 35. Break C++11 auto, decltype, range-based for loop lambdas, explicit overrides, static_assert nullptr, variadic templates, initializer_lists, enum classes, move-semantics
- 36. std::async C++ 11 has built-in support for asynchrony available through <future> header std::async<T>(std::function) returns a future<T> - Different launch policies (synchronous, asynchronous) - can be waited on using wait() or get() to retrieve the result Implemented in VC++ using PPL (parallel patterns library) - Highly scalable and performant
- 37. std::async Not every asynchronous operation is a thread / cpu bound Notably IO requests User Input etc. std::future<T> can be created from a std::promise<T>! std::promise<T> acts as a provider for a future Marshalls result between threads of execution correct locking / etc. Provides set_value / set_exception
- 38. std::async T1 T2 (Blocks) Demo
- 39. Parallel Patterns Library Based on ConcRT Compatible to Intel Thread Building Blocks (TBB) At least interface wise Template Library for parallel programming Abstracts concurrent workflows into tasks Provides continuations (improvement over std::future<T>) Demo
- 40. Auto Vectorization Modern CPUs support SIMD Single Instruction Multiple Data Extensions such as SSE and AVX Usually optimized for specifically using compiler intrinsics or inline assembler Serial Vector x = x1 + x2 xyzw = xyzw1 + xyzw2 y = y1 + y2 z = z1 + z2 w = w1 + w2 τ
- 41. Auto Vectorization VC++ 2012 compiler has an auto-vectorizer (-Qvec) Tries to automatically vectorize loops and operators Enabled by default Diagnosis output using /Qvec-report:2 Performance difference? Depends. Max 4x for SSE (128bit), 8x for AVX (256bit), 3x-4x typical Demo (later with auto parallelization)
- 42. Auto-Parallelization To utilize multiple cores, parallelization is used (MIMD) Multiple-Instructions-Multiple-Data VC++2012 has an auto-parallelizer Can be hinted #pragma loop(hint_parallel(N)) #pragma loop(ivdep) Enabled using /Qpar Diagnosis using /Qpar-report:2 Demo
- 43. C++ AMP Open specification created by Microsoft C++ for GPGPU Massively Parallel / Vector programming Based on top of DirectCompute (windows) Clang / LLVM implementation using OpenCL is available Provided by Intel (“Shevlin Park”) One new keyword Restricts the decorated function to a specific subset of c++ Template library for wrapping data structures Datatransfer to/from GPU etc.
- 44. Why C++ AMP? Directly available from the compiler No additional SDK required Can reuse types (vector2f e.g.) Better debugging experience compared to CUDA / OpenCL! Makes C++ applicable to heterogeneous computing A processor may consist of multiple cores of different flavor More energy efficient (mobile!) visual computing image morphing Augmented reality etc. Demo
- 45. Smaller container sizes X86 release, sizes in bytes Container VC9 SP1 / SCL = 0 VC10 (2010) VC11 (2012) (2008) vector<int> 16 16 12 deque<int> 32 24 20 forward_list<int> N/A 8 4 queue<int> 32 24 20 stack<int> 32 24 20 unordered_map<int, int> 44 44 32 string 28 28 24 wstring 28 28 24 ~14% less!
- 46. Smaller container sizes x64 release, sizes in bytes Container VC9 SP1 / SCL = 0 VC10 (2010) VC11 (2012) (2008) vector<int> 32 32 24 deque<int> 64 48 40 forward_list<int> N/A 16 8 queue<int> 64 48 40 stack<int> 64 48 40 unordered_map<int, int> 88 88 64 string 40 40 32 wstring 40 40 32 ~20% less!
- 47. Code Analysis Static analysis Provides warnings at compile time Additionally to /GS and /SDL Detailed information on warning
- 48. Code Analysis What does it check ? Uninitialized Reads HRESULT verification checks Concurrency Warnings Format string checks Correct destructor calls (delete[] vs delete) Redundant code checks Many more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a5b9aa09.aspx Custom code can be annotated to aid code analysis See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182032.aspx Demo
- 49. Break std::async ppl auto vectorization auto parallelization container sizes code analysis
- 50. Custom Snippets .snippet is supported, same as C# XML file describing a code snippet Declare variables and use them in the snippet body Very helpful for similar but not equivalent code Demo
- 51. Debug View Pin watch to source code Add comments Not only variables, but (most) expressions View values from last debug session Export / Import Data Tips Makes it easier for debugging with multiple developers / on different machines Demo
- 52. Parallel Stacks Window New view for debugging Better understanding of multi thread applications
- 53. Parallel Tasks Window Lists the task queues
- 54. Parallel Watch Window Watch expressions in parallel Especially useful in tight loops Data races Expressions Can freeze / thaw threads Manually verify locking Demo Parallel Stacks Parallel Tasks Threads Parallel Watch
- 55. Shortcuts Shortcut Action Shortcut Strg + , Navigate To Strg + Q Search Menu F12 Go To Definition Strg + K, C Comment lines Umschalt + F12 Find all references Strg + K, U Uncomment lines Strg + - Navigate Backwards Strg + M, O Collapse To definition Strg + Umschalt + - Navigate Forwards Strg +M, X Expand All Outlining Strg + F Find in current file Strg +M, S Collapse Current Region Strg + H Replace in current file Strg + M, E Expand Current Region
- 56. Break Custom snippets Debug view experience Parallel Stacks Parallel Tasks Parallel Watch Window code analysis Shortcuts
- 57. What‟s next? It‟s a good century for C++ / native developers Single thread performance isn‟t getting much better memory latency / bandwidth is the bottleneck Efficiency is becoming more important (mobile!) There is a huge commitment towards C++ Google, Apple started a new compiler project a few years ago (Clang / LLVM) ISO standard is evolving more quickly C++ Standards Foundation (www.isocpp.org) Google, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, ARM, IBM, HP, etc.
- 58. Upcoming Standards Library in std:: for file system handling based on boost.filesystem v3 We are here! Net TS Networking HTTP etc. TM TS Transactional Memory
- 59. Wrap-Up Tour around the new IDE New Library Features Shell / Window handling std::async Solution Explorer PPL Code Navigation Improved container sizes Better Intellisense Snippets, Debug Experience Parallel Watch, Threads, Tasks New Compiler Features New Language Features Code Analysis auto, decltype, lambdas, /SDL /GS override, final Auto Vectorization static_assert, nullptr Auto parallelization C++ AMP
- 60. Philipp Aumayr software architects gmbh Q&A Mail philipp@timecockpit.com Web http://www.timecockpit.com Twitter @paumayr Thank your for coming! Saves the day.
Editor's Notes
- #8: Snap window back to original: Ctrl + Double click headerPromoting Preview Tab -> Ctrl + Alt + Home (Pos1)
- #9: Promoting Preview Tab -> Ctrl + Alt + Home (Pos1)Show Themes (Dark / Light)
- #10: Demo: Open VC2012 solution, add a few Assert::Fail to make testing more interesting. Show what test classes are
- #11: Demo: Open up Ogre SDK -> show that included Ogre.h works for intellisense
- #12: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\11.0_Config\\Debugger]"EnableNatvisDiagnostics"=dword:00000001
- #13: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\11.0_Config\\Debugger]"EnableNatvisDiagnostics"=dword:00000001http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/jj620914.aspx
- #17: VC2012:TestAuto, TestAuto2, show types in intellisense
- #18: Demo: TestDeclType, show types of variables using hover
- #19: Demo:TestRangeBasedForLoop, TestRangeBasedForLoopArray, TestRangeBasedForLoopCustomRange
- #21: Demo: TestLambdaFunctionAdd, TestLambdaFunctionCaptureValue, TestLambdaFunctionCaptureReference, TestLambdaFunctionMultiCapture, TestLambdaFunctionPassToFunction
- #22: Demo: TestLambdaFunctionAdd, TestLambdaFunctionCaptureValue, TestLambdaFunctionCaptureReference, TestLambdaFunctionMultiCapture, TestLambdaFunctionPassToFunction
- #31: Demo: TestInitializerList
- #32: Demo: VC2012CTP.cpp
- #35: Demo: TestMoveConstructor
- #39: Demo: TestAsync, TestPromise, TestTaskPPL
- #40: Demo: TestTaskPPL
- #43: Demo: VC2012 -> main.cppQvec / Qparmessages http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj658585.aspx
- #45: Demo: VC2012 -> uncomment AMP
- #49: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a5b9aa09.aspxDemo: ArrayOfByOne, RedundantCodeCheck
- #52: Intvector.snippet, debugging support
- #54: Demo: break in TestAsync