xtofl / cpp11training

Make unit tests run to exercise your C++11 knowledge

cpp 11 training

Exercises to train your C++11/14/17 (and then some).

Getting started

Linux

On Linux all you need is a compiler with C++17 support; gcc-7 and gcc-8 have it.

git clone [email protected]:xtofl/cpp11training
mkdir -p cpp11training/build
cd cpp11training/build
cmake ../src
make

Windows

Prerequisite: currently I have it up and running for Visual Studio 2017 Community edition. It relies on NuGet package manager, which should be installed explicitly (cf. stackoverflow)

Open the cpp11training/cpp11training.sln solution.

Docker host

If you don't want to litter your system with tools you don't trust, but you do trust Docker, you can build and run the docker container in docker. You may even be in luck and simply docker pull xtofl/cpp11training.

Then, clone the repository, and start a cpp11training container. Now you can follow the steps like in Linux.

(windows users may be happy to find a run_container.bat script to help)

Exercising

The project contains a bunch of failing unit tests. The idea is that you un-DISABLE each one of them, and make it pass (using C++11, obviously). (the gtest library by default ignores tests starting with DISABLED_.)

I tried to add a TODO: comment hinting what's expected from you to fulfill the exercise.

Once all tests pass, I have nothing more to teach you :)

cpp11training's Issues

Visual studio specifics should be generated by CMake

The current sources can be built with cmake. There is also a visual studio project and solution. However, the latter are maintenance heavy.

They should be replaced by a cmake generated solution.

Remove the .sln and .vcxproj files, and extend the instructions with cmake -> VS support.

smart pointer presentation contains some antipatterns

Slide 15:

std::unique_ptr<derived> dp{static_cast<derived*>(bp.get())};
--> here, D is owned twice!
bp.release();

Folder structure is confusing

When using the exercises, users end up with a directory structure like /home/x/cpp11training/cpp11training/cpp11training, which is absolutely confusing.

You should have just /home/x/cpp11training/ after the clone, and the exercises should be in the src subdir.

async exercises are tightly coupled

while going through the async exercises, solving subsequent exercises will break the previous ones. Rather decouple them: a simple technique would be to stow them in separate files.

CMake minimal required version does not support CXX17 symbol

There is no clear path to follow when doing the exercises

Part of move-exercise is optimized-away

The exercise called 'speed_this_up_by_adding_move_support' has a duration call for a lambda that seems to be compiled away in release builds.

The expectation

    EXPECT_LT(consuming_objects, constructing_objects * 1.1)
        << "consuming: " << consuming_objects
        << " vs. constructing: " << constructing_objects

becomes impossible to meet (consuming: ~1500ms vs. constructing: ~13ms)

clang 5 and 6 build fails on travis