Kodsnack 429 - This is a meetup, with Harald Achitz

Kristoffer chats with Harald Achitz about test-driven development, Djinni, meetups, and the standardization of C++.

How does Harald do TDD? His focus on code coverage plays a role too. Clouds make it easier to skip tests, because everything becomes part of a big puzzle which only lives in production? Building habits are the big thing, not which actual tools you use and whether they can be used everywhere.

Then, we discuss Djinni - a interface definition language and code generator for integrating C++ into applications written in other languages.

The discussion then moves on to the C++ meetups Harald arranges, another aspect of solving the difficult social side of programming by networking and sharing information. Harald also puts the presentations on Youtube and is fascinated by how accessible the tools are nowadays for recording, producing and publishing video these days. The C++ meetup paused during the pandemic, and we discuss the pros and cons of moving to online meetups.

Finally, we discuss the standardization process of C++, and the possibility of forming a local C++ body for Sweden to be involved in the standardization process. We should be interested in getting involved in the standard, both as developers, companies, and industries. Get in touch with Harald if you have ideas and want to help things happen!

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Links

• Harald
• Test-driven development
• Code coverage
• Djinni
• Harald has also discussed Djinni in a Cppcast episode
• Interface definition language
• Flutter
• React
• React native
• Dropbox' blog post on why they stopped sharing C++ code between platforms
• Scala
• Lisp
• The Stockholm C++ meetup
• Sweden C++ meetup videos on Youtube
• OBS
• Cppcon
• swedencpp.se - umbrella site for all the Swedish C++ meetups mentioned
• ISO
• The ISO working group for C++
• JTC1 - the committee for information technology
• SC22 - the ISO committee for programming languages and more
• The COBOL working group
• The programming language vulnerabilities working group within SC22 - does not seem too active at the moment
• SIS - Swedish standards institute

Titles

• First in the shoes of the user
• People are lazy, and I’m also lazy
• I always want the computer to do the job for me
• Part of a big puzzle that lives in production
• Solutions often has a long life
• Existing developers will not be very happy
• A completely new language every time
• The difficult part of programming is the social part
• Communicate practices
• This was the best meetup
• A huge box of DVI adapters
• “Let’s make a simple video!”
• Download and print as much as I could
• You need to be reachable, and you need to be responsive
• This is a meetup
• I need to see that it’s not just you
• C can make the life of C++ very hard
• The standards process has been a mystery
• It was never a secret
• The beauty of the world we live in