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Comment by banachtarski | Hacker News Reader

For learning the best principles about actually driving (aka coding) in C++, what are the best resources these days? I learned from Stroustrup, Accelerated C++, and on the job programming. However, every company seems to have an idea of what "good C++" looks like and they all disable/enable a varying subset of C++ features to support their individual standards.

What's the closest guide out there that's representative of "ideal" C++ code and style?

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Stop and consider if you really need to be programming in C++; if not, don't do it. If you do, then focus on problem domain (embedded, gaming, OS, low-level stuff, ...) you need C++ for rather than C++ coding in isolation.

I think this is wise. On a one man team, assigned a task of 'just get it done', I can think of better languages than C++ for most tasks. I think a general awareness of C++ is good, so that when joining a team you can learn their corner of C++. Whereas spending your own time learning all corners of it is bad, because a lot of that time could be wasted, unless it's an enjoyable way to spend time for that given person.

In the games world, C++ is still ubiquitous as it is one of the few places where bleeding edge performance is a competitive advantage. In my case, I want to write my own game engine :). I've been using other engines for years and have plenty of experience in other languages (Haskell, Ruby, Python, Lisp, Erlang, etc). Although I have a lot of C++ experience, I feel like the idioms sometimes allude me.

I guess the most sensible thing to do is then ape the style of whatever libraries you intend on using the most!

Even between Sutter, Stroustrop, and Alexandrescu you will find completely different approaches and styles.

Use what makes sense to you, and by makes sense to you, I mean you know exactly what you are doing, if you are starting or managing a project.

If you aren't the lead, follow the leader, unless they have some glaring issues in their style and technique. This happens most of the time, though, because C++ is a huge beast.

There is none! It's totally dependent on the project, the people involved and the tools being used.

I think looking at a popular open source project in C++ like LLVM may prove valuable http://llvm.org/docs/CodingStandards.html. Google has a C++ style guide http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cppguide.x....

I could see a C++ project with many people being difficult without some basic guidelines. Sometimes style guidelines are less about the "best" way and more about consistency for people to be able to work with code they didn't write.

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