How can I brush up my C++ knowledge?

Question

It passed 10 years since I last used C++. Back in those days in University but also at laboratories I used to be one of the best in the class with highest grades.

But know if I look at some C++ code it is not all obvious too me, and I am feeling left behind. Also all this period I didn't kept an eye on its recent development and I guess the language might have had some changes.

What approach to take and what to study to catch up without re-reading the most obvious things and have the shortest ramp-up as possible?

Answer 1

It would be helpful to know what kind of code you find hard to read. Given your description (lots of C++ at university - where people tend to focus on other parts of the language than in the industry, nothing since), I would assume you are comfortable with the basic syntax and structure of the language, classes including polymorphism, and some basic template stuff.

In my opinion, that leaves the following probable sources of confusion when looking at current code:

• Advanced template metaprogramming.
• Extensive use of the standard library, especially the intricacies of containers, iterators, algorithms, type traits.
• C++11 features, which weren't around when you last had a look at C++.

For all of these topics, there are good books available which won't bore you with "here's a pointer, it looks like a star" but get to the juicy bits quickly. There's an extensive list over at stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list