Cpp Report

Or, correctly spelled, the C++ Report.

The C++ Report is no more. Almost all the contributors have moved over to the C Users Journal. -- rcm

...which also is no more, having been merged with DrDobbsJournal (to the sadness of many). -- TimLesher

There is a lot of good stuff in the CppUsersJournal?. Unfortunately, much less new stuff seems to get online nowadays. It's almost as if they didn't want to give this stuff away for free. -- JamesKeogh

The link above is now broken and does not refer to the original web site.

From the web page ... the international authority on CeePlusPlus development, delivers a solid mix of hands-on programming tips, how-to features, and product information for the serious C++ developer.

This is a good publication for the PatternCommunity, with frequent contributions by JimCoplien, JohnVlissides, RobertCecilMartin, DougSchmidt and others.

A magazine that publishes patterns material from authors like those can't be all bad.

Mentioned (none too kindly) in...

http://mfcfaq.stingray.com/chapter2/chapter2_4.htm
"Great if you want to learn about the dynamics of instantiated, real-time templates as applied to generic programming and patterns in modern-day CASE/UNIX based GNU compilers. <yawn> Don't these guys have day jobs?"

From editor:

"There have indeed been a few articles that explored the dark corners of the language. But there have been many many articles that presented real solutions to real CeePlusPlus programming problems. We publish a regular MFC [MicrosoftFoundationClasses] column by Fritz Onion that covers that topic quite well. We don't view C++ as being primarily a vehicle for MFC; and we don't view the C++ Report as an MFC tutorial. MFC is just one of many class libraries out there." -- RobertCecilMartin (outgoing editor)

I find the dearth of colleagues comfortable with even intermediate programming theory more unsettling than the dearth of magazines into the same. Who needs another magazine about "How to Stomp the Bugs out of <monopolistic vendor>'s Latest API"? You can get that on USENET... But another article about "Why Assertions Are Good and Typecasts Are Bad"? I'd pay for that just to prime my own ammunition. -- PhlIp

HerbSutter, the incomming editor, is thought to hold similar editorial attitudes as RobertMartin who recruited him. Wiki junkies hope Herb will find time to contribute here.

The magazine promises in the trench practicality, a claim supported by articles along these lines ...

What experince would that be? Does he write CeePlusPlus code for clients? Does he write anything used in a production system?

Are you CastingAnonymousAsparagus at AndrewKoenig, a man whose C++ chops are only slightly inferior to BjarneStroustrup's? His latest columns have been based on the experience of teaching StandardCpp? to a number of groups. -- TresSeaver

Teaching is a lot different from writing real code in a production system.

In any case, what he does for a living does not alter the nature or quality of his knowledge, unless you're in an AdHominem sort of mood. -- MikeSmith

I am interested in the knowledge with the widest possible scope. In a magazine like C++ Report, that means LanguageLawyer-nuts-and-bolts, DesignPatterns, and wide-scope solutions. From my point of view, the LanguageLawyer articles are exactly what C++ report should be doing.

MicrosoftFoundationClasses articles may be nice, and may even apply to my job today (although I hope they don't), but they may not apply to my job tomorrow. Why would one invest in knowledge so narrow that it limits you to a specific and volatile ecological niche? Don't become a specialty feeder; the fossil record is full of specialty feeders that couldn't adapt to calamity. The LanguageLawyer knowledge will apply no matter what CeePlusPlus job I get, and the DesignPatterns and wide-scope solutions will apply no matter what language I program in. In any case, the domain-specific stuff can be picked up pretty easily if you have a solid background in the fundamentals.

If you're doing CeePlusPlus and you are afraid of learning and exploiting its power, change languages. C++ is a radioactive language, and it's only worth the danger if you have the skill to pull out the control rods and let the language go critical. Otherwise, all you get is radiation without much power.

-- WayneConrad

And as a confirmed academic, I often look at the articles and think they're covering things that were abandoned years ago (AutomatedCodeGeneration from object diagrams? how '91... [see ClassDiagram?]). Producing a pratical programming magazine is a tough job. Look at what happened to the Communications of the ACM when they tried; they went from ground-breaking articles that blended theory and practice to gee-whiz-isn't-this-cool articles. They thought any mention of theory would kill them, so they committed suicide. Then there's DrDobbsJournal, which tends to contain snippets of almost interesting ideas but with little to no unification. I loved it in HighSchool, but then I outgrew most of it. To me, the CppReport is one of the best pragmatic magazines out there. CeePlusPlus is not far behind the cutting edge (in terms of theoretical research) of fully compiled, StaticallyTyped languages. The magazine does a good job of blending a touch of theory with actual use, often bridging the DifferenceBetweenTheoryAndPractice. -- JasonRiedy

We all know what happened to ByteMagazine. But how many remember what it was like in the early eighties (when all the personal windowing OSs were in their arms race)? It actually had, like, discussion forum extracts and source code in it! -- PhlIp

The thing that gets me is that there doesn't seem to be a good language-independent magazine covering software design and engineering issues other than DrDobbsJournal. I'd like to see articles about AspectOrientedProgramming, Patterns, ActiveObjectModels, ReFactoring, ValueObjectHypotheses, FunctionalProgrammingLanguages, etc. CppReport has done a good job of stepping into that realm a bit. I love the language-specific stuff, but there is a lot which falls between the cracks. -- MichaelFeathers

I always thought JournalOfObjectOrientedProgramming was a good language-independent magazine. -- RobertDiFalco

CategoryMagazine

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