Pacific++ 2017: Nick Sarten "Type-safe state machines with C++17 std::variant"

Website: https://pacificplusplus.com/ Resources: https://github.com/pacificplusplus/conference Twitter: https://twitter.com/pacificplusplus Abstract: std::variant is one of the most anticipated features of the new C++17 standard. This new template library provides type-safe unions to supplant plain C unions, which are famously tricky to use safely in C++. This talk will start with an overview of std::variant and comparison with other C++ union types. The second part of this talk will cover the application of this new C++17 feature to create type-safe state machines, with the goal of turning run-time errors into compile-time errors. About the speaker: Nick is a software engineer from the embedded software team at Trimble's Auckland office working on dynamic weighing systems for heavy machinery such as wheel loaders and excavators. He has previously worked in a wide range of roles and sectors within the software industry and is passionate about both performance and usability. Nick recently completed study towards an M.E. in Computer Systems Engineering and welcomed a daughter into the world. When not working or fathering, he is most likely to be found tinkering, making or gaming.