New CUJ Article; TCS3; gcc 3.2 for Windows

Three things:
- New CUJ article by me.
- Status Report on THE C++ Seminar later this month.
- EZ gcc 3.2 for Windows (thanks to Leor Zolman).

NEW CUJ ARTICLE
---------------
The current CUJ (November 2002) has an article by me on how combining class
templates, member functions templates, and total specialization of a class
template can lead to STL-compatible function objects that are a lot easier
to use than the ones in the STL. Unless you saw me present this material
at THE C++ Seminar in March or at Software Development in April, this will
probably be new to you. Personally, I think it's kind of neat. For the
time being, the article will be available only in the print magazine, but I
expect to make an electronic copy available sometime in December.

I don't know why, but I can't help but point out that with this
publication, I have published new material every year since 1989. That's
nothing compared to many columnists, some of whom have produced new
material every week or month for decades, but I've done the columnist
thing, and there's a qualitative difference between writing to meet a
deadline (as columnists must do) and writing only when you think you have
something interesting to say. If you'd like to see a summary of when I've
thought that, mosey on over to http://www.aristeia.com/publications.html.

THE C++ SEMINAR (TCS3)
----------------------
Andrei, Herb, Steve, Dan, and I are putting the finishing touches on THE
C++ Seminar, to be held at the end of this month in Vancouver, Washington
(near Portland, Oregon). More than one speaker took advantage of the
opportunity to change talk topics until literally the day we had to commit
the notes to CD, so I encourage you to check out the as-final-as-it-gets
schedule at http://www.thecppseminar.com/03/index.htm.

Regarding TCS3, I'm going to tell you two things I probably shouldn't.
First, I can't resist quoting a message -- without permission -- I recently
got from Andrei about work he's been doing and which he plans to present:

Scott, I have dynamite new material. Blood will shed on the streets!
Heads will roll!

Coding standards will change forever. Here's an example: I have strong
proof that the following classic implementations:

X& X::operator=(const X& rhs)
{
X copy(rhs);
copy.swap(*this);
return *this;
}

and

const X operator+(const X& lhs, const X& rhs)
{
return X(lhs) += rhs;
}

are about the WORST and UNRECOMMENDED signatures and implementations.

I now have a set of COMPLETELY NEW RULES on how to implement such
functions. The reward? ZERO UNNECESSARY TEMPORARY OBJECTS CREATED.

I don't know about you, but I want to be there when the blood starts
flowing, the heads start rolling, and the coding standards start changing.

The other thing I probably shouldn't tell you is that as things stand now,
we probably won't sell out. (Attendance is limited to 95.) From a
business point of view, that's bad news for us, but if you're an attendee,
it's great news. It means less contention if you want to sit and talk with
each of us, ask us questions, bounce design ideas off us, etc. I can't
make any guarantees, because we might end up selling out after all, but
currently it looks like TCS3 will honestly be the best opportunity there
has ever been to spend relatively uncrowded time with the five of us to
talk serious C++.

The TCS Home Page is at http://www.thecppseminar.com/index.htm.

GCC 3.2 FOR WINDOWS WITHOUT TEARS
---------------------------------
Speaking of quoting mail without permission, just today I got mail from
Leor Zolman describing how to get gcc 3.2 running under Windows without
Cygwin. This is important, because the current Mingw32 distribution
includes only gcc 2.95, yet gcc 3.2 has significant additional
capabilities. Until Leor figured out how to do it, getting gcc 3 installed
on non Cygwin Windows machine was a black art. But Leor wrote me:

I've updated my cheat sheet with the 3.2 information:

http://www.bdsoft.com/dist/MinGW-gcc3-install.txt

It also talks about how to code for multi-platform extended container
support with the right conditional compilation symbols.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I haven't tested Leor's information myself, primarily
because I'm staring down the barrel of a bevy of very unforgiving
deadlines right now. But if the past is any indication, if you do what
Leor says, things will go swimmingly for you. If they don't, please TELL
LEOR, not me!

Scott
--------------------------------------
All new! THE C++ Seminar: Oct. 28-30 in Vancouver, WA.
http://www.thecppseminar.com/