Feed - Playful Programming's RSS Feed

Angular 19: linkedSignal & Resource API 🔗

Let's learn about Angular19's linkedSignal & Resource APIs! [...]

Angular Internals: Lifecycle Methods and Effect Timings 🔗

Let's dive into the timings for Angular's lifecycle methods and effect APIs. We'll even be reading a fair amount of Angular source code to explain it [...]

Quick Guide to Building a PWA with Next.js 🔗

Learn how to turn your Next.js app into a Progressive Web App (PWA). [...]

Web Fundamentals: Manipulating the DOM with JavaScript 🔗

The ninth chapter of this series finally goes over the DOM, how to manipulate it, and how to make our components interactive! [...]

Web Fundamentals: JavaScript Basics 🔗

The seventh chapter of this series contains the first look into JavaScript and its basic components. [...]

Web Fundamentals: Responsive Design 🔗

The sixth chapter tackles responsive design, breakpoints, media queries and more! [...]

Web Fundamentals: CSS - Inheritance & Hierarchy 🔗

The third chapter of our series talks about the cascade hierarchy in CSS, including inheritance and specificity. [...]

How does Zoneless Angular Work? 🔗

In the future Angular will not have Zone.js enabled by default and will not need it for change detection. But how will that work in a technical sense? [...]

How we built our custom semantic search page 🔗

Let's learn how we managed to improve our search experience using semantic search, powered by Orama. [...]

A forgotten C++ idiom revisited: pass-key 🔗

So you have a class, and you want to control who can create instances of it? Easy, make constructors private, and make friends with those who can c... [...]

What are Signals? 🔗

Signals are seemingly everywhere today. So here's the question? What are they? Let's build an implementation ourselves to understand them better. [...]

Web Fundamentals: Grid 🔗

In the fifth chapter of our series, we're going to be introduced to CSS grid, a well-known feature to display content, and used in almost every websit [...]

Web Fundamentals: Flexbox 🔗

In the fourth chapter of our series, we'll look at flexbox, a powerful layout feature that allows you to create responsive designs with ease. [...]

Web Fundamentals: CSS - The Basics 🔗

The second chapter in our front-end series. Let's delve right into the world of CSS, variables and selectors. [...]

Web Fundamentals: HTML 🔗

The first chapter of this series offers an introductory dive into the box model, HTML defaults and semantic elements. [...]

Entity Component System: The Perfect Solution to Reusable Code? 🔗

The ECS pattern is used by many game engines to create stateless, reusable game logic. But how does it work? [...]

Where should you start building your application 🔗

Talking about where you should start building your full stack application [...]

Why is CSS-in-JS slow? 🔗

If you've worked with frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue in the past you'll likely have used (or heard of) a CSS-in-JS solution like Styled Com... [...]

It's Time For A Change: Rebranding Our Platform 🔗

"Unicorn Utterances" is now "Playful Programming". Let's talk about why, what's different, what's the same, and what's next. [...]

A Complete History of Unicorn Utterances 🔗

Now that "Unicorn Utterances" is called "Playful Programming", let's look at the history of the project. [...]

Set up a React Native Web Project in a Monorepo 🔗

Setting up a React Native Web project in a monorepo is challenging. Let's do so and see what challenges we run into! [...]

Explaining Promises, Async, and Await in JavaScript 🔗

Modern JavaScript is built on promises and callbacks. Let's learn what promises are and how we can make their usage easier using async functions. [...]

Framework Comparison Table 🔗

Let's compare and contrast React, Angular, and Vue's APIs all in one place. [...]

Accessing Children 🔗

Oftentimes, when passing children to a component, you want a way to programmatically access that passed data. Let's learn how to do that in React, Ang [...]

Directives 🔗

If components are a way to share JS logic between multiple, composable DOM nodes; directives are a way to assign logic to any single DOM node. [...]

Shared Component Logic 🔗

Components provide a great way to share layout, styling, and logic between multiple parts of your app. But what about times you only need to share log [...]

Portals 🔗

When building an app in React, Angular, or Vue, you'll often find that overlapping components can become a real problem. Rendering order can be confus [...]

Dependency Injection 🔗

Passing around props suck. They're repetitive, get out of sync, and are easy to forget to pass. What if there was a better way to pass data between di [...]

Error Handling 🔗

Bug are a constant in development. How can we make error handling lead to a nicer user experience when they occur in React, Angular, and Vue? [...]

Component Reference 🔗

While you usually want to pass data to child components, sometimes you need to access arbitrary data from the child without needing to explicitly pass [...]

Element Reference 🔗

React, Angular, and Vue provide powerful APIs that let you avoid DOM manipulations most of the time. But sometimes you need to access the underlying D [...]

Passing Children 🔗

Just like HTML nodes have parents and children, so too do framework components. Let's learn how React, Angular, and Vue allow you to pass children to [...]

Transparent Elements 🔗

There are specific instances where you may want to have a wrapper element in a framework that renders to nothing in the DOM. This is how. [...]

Derived Values 🔗

Often in application development, you'll want to base one variable's value off of another. There are a few ways of doing this - some easier than other [...]

Side Effects 🔗

Some call them "lifecycle methods", others "effect handlers". However you spin it, they both handle side effects in your apps. How can we leverage the [...]

Dynamic HTML 🔗

One of the primary advantages of using a framework is the ability to quickly generate dynamic HTML from JavaScript logic. Let's walk through some exam [...]

Introduction to Components 🔗

Components are the core building block in which all applications written with React, Angular, and Vue are built. Let's explore what they are and how t [...]

Preface 🔗

Learning web development is a vital skill in a software engineer's toolbox. Let's talk about why you should learn it and what this book will cover. [...]

Embedding Interfaces in Go 🔗

Creating tests can feel tedious, but doing it in Go can be, dare I say, *fun*. Let's take a look at how embedding interfaces clears some of that tediu [...]

Build a Vite 5 Backend Integration with Flask 🔗

Learn how to build a lightweight backend Vite integration using a Flask Blueprint in ~50 lines of code. [...]

Move manifest.json to the Output Directory's Parent in Vite 5 🔗

Move Vite's manifest.json file outside of the build directory. [...]

Fuzzing an API with libfuzzer 🔗

[Edit] I was just told that libFuzzer is deprecated. I think the ideas presented are valid for any fuzzer, but the details will differ. When I ment... [...]

Web Framework Quickstart Guide 🔗

Here's the quickest ways you can get up-and-running with templates for React, Angular, and Vue; using official tools. [...]

Astro Healthcheck 🔗

Monitoring Your Blog for Issues [...]

Angular Dynamic host Property Usage 🔗

In directives and components alike, it can be a pain to add attributes and bindings to the host element. Instead of using DI to change the host, try t [...]

Angular's Templates Don't Work the Way You Think They Do 🔗

Angular templates are mission-critial for components. But how do they work? Using a compiler, yes, but how do they bind to the DOM itself? Read on to [...]

What is React's useActionState and useFormStatus? 🔗

React Server Actions are an awesome way to pass data to and from your React client and server. Like all functions, they need a way to return data. [...]

What are React Server Actions? 🔗

While React Suspense APIs enable you to load data asynchronously from the server, Server Actions allow you to send data to the server from the client. [...]

About time - how to unit test code that depends on time 🔗

Suppose that the logic of your program depends on time. That is, you need to keep track of when something in the past happened, and what time it is... [...]

What is React Suspense and Async Rendering? 🔗

Handling async code in React code has historically been fairly challenging to get right. Let's see how React's official solutions for promises stack u [...]

Explaining React's cache Function 🔗

React's dipping its toes into data fetching! With this comes a big requirement to cache the results of a given function. Luckily, React's done that. L [...]

What are React Server Components (RSCs)? 🔗

React Server Components have been a topic of regular discussion in the WebDev space as-of late. What are they? How do they improve the SSR story for R [...]

What is Reconciliation and the Virtual DOM (VDOM)? 🔗

How does React handle update the DOM? The answer? "The Virtual DOM and reconciliation." Let's explore what these are and how you can leverage them the [...]

What is Reactivity? 🔗

When researching frontend frameworks, you're likely to hear about "reactivity". But what is it? Why does it matter? Let's explore this and more in thi [...]

When private member function? 🔗

I've seen this a few times too many recently, and need to get it off my chest. Ponder a class that has a private member function. The function does... [...]

Figma to Compose: Line Height & Baseline Grids 🔗

A detailed guide on how to make text in Jetpack Compose match your mockups, and why baseline grids are not all that they're hyped up to be. [...]

How to Build Original Projects 🔗

People often say that you should build your own projects to grow as a developer, without explaining how. Let's learn how to actually plan and build yo [...]

Discovering Odd Behavior with Angular Error Handling 🔗

Angular has fairly consistent error handling behavior... Until it doesn't. Here's one place where it's off and why. [...]

Introduction to Hash Tables 🔗

A high-level overview of how hash tables work behind the scenes. [...]

Porting a Next.js Site to Astro Step-by-Step 🔗

Let's port a site from Next.js to Astro, expanding on the official migration guide. [...]

Using JavaScript classes without the `class` keyword 🔗

Classes are a core feature of JavaScript - but they weren't always that way. How did earlier JS devs write classes? Let's learn how together. [...]

How to Setup a React Native Monorepo 🔗

React Native can be challenging to setup a monorepo for. Let's explore what an optimal monorepo setup looks like for it. [...]

Unraveling the Magic of the Virtual DOM 🔗

The VDOM is the secret sauce that empowers developers to create the captivating, dynamic web applications that we use every day. [...]

A Crash Course to Two-Factor Authentication 🔗

Two-Factor Authentication is a security feature that adds an extra layer of protection to your online accounts. [...]

Advice for New Twitch Streamers 🔗

Twitch streaming can be fun and fulfilling, but has various roadblocks in the way for newcomers. Here's how you can overcome them and grow your Twitch [...]

What is Object Mutation in JavaScript? 🔗

When working with objects, you may hear the term "mutation". What is that? How does it work? How do let and const REALLY differ from each other? This [...]

Mastering JavaScript's `this` keyword using `bind` 🔗

JavaScript's `this` keyword is imperative when dealing with classes in JavaScript, but can introduce some headaches. Let's solve that using the `bind` [...]

Deep Dive: Writing a Twitch Chat Bot in Bash 🔗

bash? You mean the terminal where I do my git commands? [...]

Functions Are Killing Your React App's Performance 🔗

If you've ever built a production React application, you've likely ran into various performance problems along the way. Here are the most common and h [...]

Formik Works Great; Here's Why I Wrote My Own 🔗

Formik works incredibly, but I have some concerns with it. As a result, I ended up writing my own library called "HouseForm" to compete. Here's why. [...]

Creating project templates for Android Studio 🔗

Showing how we can build a Android Studio plugin to provide our own project templates in the Android Studio new project wizard [...]

Async pipe is not pure 🤯 🔗

Learn how angular's async pipe is not pure and how that's not a problem, by building async pipe from scratch. [...]

What Happened to UUIDv2? 🔗

You may have heard that "UUIDv2 is bad". Maybe you've never even heard of them and thought UUIDs went from v1 to v3. Why is that? What did UUIDv2 do w [...]

What are UUIDs? 🔗

When discussing ID generation in software, you may have heard of a UUID. What are they? Are they useful? What are the different versions? Let's explor [...]

A Linux C++ programmers adventure in improving Windows CI on GitHub actions 🔗

TL;DR; Ninja is available directly in the windows images Use to set up the MSVC environment for building with Ninja. You need nested quotes for CX... [...]

Fun with Types 🔗

Making hilarious things with no emitted code. [...]

Angular Internals: How Reactivity Works with Zone.js 🔗

Reactivity is core to JavaScript frameworks; changing data should cause a re-render. How does this work in Angular? Let's dive into the Angular source [...]

Why is z-index not working?! - Explaining CSS Stacking Context 🔗

z-index is a CSS property that helps control the z-axis height of an element, but it often doesn't seem to work. Why is that? How does it REALLY work? [...]

How to Share Lifecycle Methods Between Components in Angular 🔗

Sharing code between components in Angular is TOUGH. Here's one way you can do so by utilizing base components that you extend - and why you shouldn't [...]

Minecraft Data Pack Programming: Scoreboard Usage 🔗

Learn data pack development in Minecraft - using player scoreboards, variables, and operations! [...]

Vue Composition API Inspector 🔗

A peek under the hood of Vue compilation. See how Vue interpretes TypeScript [...]

JavaScript Fundamentals: Functions Are Values 🔗

JavaScript functions are widely used in web development... but do you KNOW them? Let's explore the fundamentals and how they can be used in unorthodox [...]

Python None 🔗

Interpreted languages have various footguns. Let's explore one such footgun I ran into recently with Python and how I fixed it. [...]

Project Management for Individuals 🔗

Having the ability to structure your projects (and these don't exclusively have to be programming related) gives you a massive advantage when it comes [...]

How to ask better questions 🔗

We all ask questions from time to time, so here are some of my favourite tips when it comes to how to improve the quality of your questions. [...]

Mutable vs Immutable Data Types 🔗

Using mutable data types can be dangerous in multi-threaded applications. To help that we can make sure of thread safer immutable data types [...]

What is Primitive obsession and how to fix it 🔗

Primitive obsession is an extremely common code smell, and when identified and fix, it greatly helps to reduce the amount of bugs that you may find in [...]

When to use HashMap instead of Loop 🔗

Learn to use when to use HashMap instead of Loop [...]

Minecraft Data Pack Programming: Command Syntax 🔗

Learn the beginnings of data pack development in Minecraft - using positions, entity selectors, and conditional logic in commands! [...]

Minecraft Data Pack Programming: Introduction 🔗

Learn the beginnings of data pack development in Minecraft - using commands and functions to add custom behavior from scratch! [...]

A Guide to Python's Secret Superpower: Magic Methods 🔗

Python has a secret superpower with a similarly stupendous name: Magic Methods. These methods can fundamentally change the way you code with Python... [...]

Why I prefer Vue over Angular: DOM Pollution 🔗

Angular differs from Vue in some keys ways, including its "Incremental rendering". This shift introduces something I call "DOM Pollution"; its why I p [...]

Windows Subsystem for Linux 🔗

Utilize the best of both worlds — Windows and Linux — without having to dual boot. Windows Subset for Linux (WSL) lets you run software designed for L [...]

The Complete Guide to Regular Expressions (Regex) 🔗

A Regular Expression – or regex for short – is a syntax that allows you to match strings with specific patterns. Think of it as a suped-up text search [...]

Rules of React's useEffect 🔗

useEffect is prolific in React apps. Here are four rules associated with the hook and in-depth explanations of why they're important. [...]

Doomsday Rule 🔗

In this blog I talk about the Doomsday Rule, how it works, how to put it into code then how to make a program that tests you. [...]

Why React 18 Broke Your App 🔗

React 18's internal changes improved a lot, but may have broken your app in the process. Here's why and how you can fix it [...]

A Better Way To Code: Documentation Driven Development 🔗

Test Driven Development is often taught to improve a your workflow; I present Documentation Driven Development as an alternative approach. [...]

How to get started with .NET 🔗

Did you know that 35% of developers are using .NET? This is a great article to read to get started with .NET. [...]

How to Upgrade to React 18 🔗

React 18 introduces some awesome features that I'm sure you can't wait to try! Here's how you can get started with React 18 today! [...]

Web Components 101: History 🔗

Web components have had a long history to get where they are today. Let's look back to see where they came from & their immense growth! [...]

Web Components 101: Framework Comparison 🔗

While web components can be used standalone, they're paired best with a framework. With that in mind, which is the best and why? [...]

Docs, Where Can We Do Better? 🔗

My personal approach to writing docs, mainly aimed at frameworks and the like. [...]

Web Components 101: Lit Framework 🔗

Google pushed for web components, sure, but they didn't stop there. They also went on to make an amazing framework to help build them: Lit! [...]

GitHub Copilot is Amazing - It Won't Replace Developers 🔗

GitHub Copilot is an amazing tool that I think will drastically improve the way that I code. But it won't replace me. Here's why. [...]

GitHub Copilot Breaks Bad Interviews 🔗

GitHub Copilot is a huge step forward for tech. Luckily, it improves our lives. Unfortunately, it will break your interviews. Here's why. [...]

Web Components 101: Vanilla JS 🔗

One of the ways web components differs from a framework is that it works right in the browser. Here's how to build them from scratch. [...]

Introduction to Web Accessibility (A11Y) 🔗

Accessibility allows as many people to use your product as possible. That, in turn, generates more profit. Here's how to improve it on web. [...]

How to Interview Frontend Engineers 🔗

Interviewing for frontend engineering positions can be difficult. Let's walk through some things you should focus on while interviewing. [...]

Python List Comprehension - The Comprehensive Guide 🔗

Python is a language with broad and powerful APIs. One such API is 'List Comprehensions'. Let's learn to use them to improve your code! [...]

My Advice to Technical Interviewers 🔗

Interviewing candidates is tough. It just is. Here are just a few of my tips to make your tech recruiting go smoother. [...]

Master React Unidirectional Data Flow 🔗

Making sure your app's code is structured well is critical. Mastering React Unidirectionality is a huge part of that. Learn how to here. [...]

Rust Enums, Matching, & Options API 🔗

Rust allows you to build super-fast and flexible applications. Let's build one leveraging enums, pattern matching, and the Options API. [...]

WebDev 101: How to use npm and Yarn 🔗

You've heard a lot about Node, NPM, and Yarn - but aren't sure what they are. Let's introduce them in-depth and answer questions about them! [...]

Living off the iPad as an Engineer 🔗

Tips on how to get yourself a proper development environment on the iPad to fully exploit its potential. [...]

The accidentally sliced CRTP base 🔗

Some time ago, I received a bug report that, in short, said "your class does not work with CRTP". I was very confused by this statement. First a sh... [...]

React Refs: The Complete Story 🔗

React Refs are an immensely powerful, yet often misunderstood API. Let's learn what they're capable of, and how they're usually misused. [...]

Package Font Files on NPM for Angular Usage 🔗

Do you use custom fonts that you want to share with multiple apps? Learn how to distribute those fonts on NPM and consume them in Angular! [...]

Adding Cathage Dependencies into React Native 🔗

CocoaPods is a great dependency manager, but some need Carthage still. Let's walk through how to integrate Carthage with React Native! [...]

How Computers Speak: Assembly to AST 🔗

Have you wondered how programming languages are able to be ran on your hardware? This article explains how your code is processed and ran [...]

What do file extensions do? 🔗

A file extension isn't the only way a file is inditified, so what does it do? [...]

Autogenerate Changelogs and Manage Releases using Conventional Commit 🔗

Whether creating changelogs or just keeping track of git tags, releases matter. Learn how to automate your release process with conventional-commits! [...]

Better Angular Form Components with ngModel and formControl Implementation 🔗

Some components make controlling their state easier with 'formControl' and 'ngModel'. Let's see how we can build our own! [...]

Pointers and References in C/C++ 🔗

An overview of how pointers and references function in C/C++ [...]

Write Simpler Tests - 5 Suggestions for Better Tests 🔗

Writing tests is a big skill for any engineer, but we often over-complicate them. Let's simplify our tests for better testing overall! [...]

Virtual Memory Overview 🔗

An overview of how operating systems give processes their own address space. [...]

Writing better tests for Angular with Angular Testing Library 🔗

A simple explination of writing better tests for Angular applications and setting up Angular Testing Library [...]

Setup Android Studio Emulator for AMD Ryzen CPUs 🔗

While the Android Emulator isn't confined to Intel CPUs anymore, it can be tricky to setup for AMD Ryzen CPUs. Let's explain how to do so. [...]

Chess Knight Problem: a quick and dirty solution in JavaScript 🔗

I present a quick and dirty solution to a common interview question where the solution is not nearly as complex as it may first appear. [...]

Keeping API Keys Secret in React Apps 🔗

Save yourself money by hiding your API keys from prying eyes and nasty bots. [...]

Draw under the Android NavBar Using React Native 🔗

Android allows you to draw content under the navigation bar. It's a neat effect! Let's add that to our React Native apps. [...]

Data Storage Options for React Native 🔗

React Native contains multiple different ways you can persist data for your application. Let's look at the choices and their pros and cons. [...]

The Ultimate Windows Development Environment Guide 🔗

Many developers like MacOS or Linux for development environments, but don't know that Windows has plenty to offer. Become a Windows pro! [...]

Networking 101: UDP & TCP 🔗

If networking is analogous to physical mail, then let's take a look at the letters being sent themselves. Let's dive into UDP and TCP [...]

What is Server Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG)? 🔗

An explanation of what server-side rendering is, what static site generation is, and how you can utilize them in React, Angular, or Vue! [...]

Building an Angular Blog With Scully 🔗

NuxtJS and Gatsby allow you to make SSG-enabled blogs, but Angular doesn't have an equivalent... Until now. Let's build a blog with Scully! [...]

Networking 101: A Basic Overview of Packets and OSI 🔗

You use networking every day - even to read this! Let's dive into explaining how we send data across a network and what the OSI model is. [...]

How to Pick Tech Stacks For New Projects 🔗

I often get asked "How do you pick a tech stack for your projects?". The answer is: outline what questions you should be asking early on. [...]

Making a Slack Bot using NodeJS and MongoDB 🔗

Join us as we teach you how to create a Slack bot from scratch using their Node SDK and MongoDB for persistence [...]

Debugging NodeJS Applications Using Chrome 🔗

Learn how to interactively debug your NodeJS applications using a GUI-based debugger built into Chrome. [...]

Integrating Native Android Code in Unity 🔗

Have you ever wanted to run native Java and Kotlin code from your mobile game written in Unity? Well, you can! Let's see how. [...]

Change the Host File of an Android Emulator 🔗

In order to test web applications with Android properly, you may need to edit the Android Emulator network host file. Here's how to do so. [...]

Introduction to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript 🔗

Introduction to the underlying concepts of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and how they work together. [...]

Web Fundamentals: Understanding the DOM 🔗

In our eight chapter, we learn how the browser internally handles HTML and CSS to show the user webpages on-screen. [...]

How Binary and Hexadecimal Work: An introduction to non-decimal number systems 🔗

Learn how to convert decimal to binary and hexadecimal, how CSS colors are calculated, and how your computer interprets letters into binary. [...]

Introduction to TypeScript — What is TypeScript? 🔗

An introduction and explanation of what TypeScript is, is not, and what it's used for [...]

Hard grids & baselines: How I achieved 1:1 fidelity on Android 🔗

Testing the limits of `firstBaselineToTopHeight` and `lastBaselineToBottomHeight` to deliver a perfect result. [...]

TypeScript Intermediates - Type Generics 🔗

An introduction to the type generic functionality in TypeScript [...]

Introduction to Android: Contexts, Intents, and the Activity lifecycle 🔗

A basic overview of the main components of an Android app and how they interact with each other and the Android system [...]

Joining Freenode IRC: A Guide 🔗

Basic (but detailed) instructions for setting up a Freenode IRC account through various clients [...]

Continuous Integration with Travis CI for Android 🔗

An in-depth tutorial explaining how to set up Travis CI to deploy signed builds to Google Play. Among other things [...]

Angular Templates — From Start to Source 🔗

Learn how templates work in Angular. From the basics to being able to read Angular source code and write your own structural directives [...]

Uttering Hello — The Site's First Post 🔗

An introduction to Unicorn Utterances, including a mission statement and general roadmap [...]

When performance guarantees hurts performance - std::visit 🔗

The performance of came up in a discussion, and my first thought was that from reading generated assembly code, it's a jump table, so it should be... [...]

How to speak at a conference 🔗

A former colleague of mine recently described the steps to speak at a conference as: Write a proposal and (optionally) a talk outline. Get accepted... [...]

DRY multicomparisons 🔗

Now and then, I find myself writing something like if (x == a || x == b || x == c) ... , and every time the repetition of x == annoys me. A number ... [...]

Angular Route Guards For Authorization In A Web And Mobile Application 🔗

Learn how to use Angular route guards for authenticating & authorizing access to certain child and parent routes. [...]

Performance of flat maps 🔗

A flat map is a data structure that maps a key to a value, and that stores the data in a compact flat memory structure to get better cache hit rate... [...]

constexpr quicksort in C++17 🔗

So I've written about compile time quick sort twice before ( 2011 and 2015 ,) but now when C++17 support is becoming available, I thought I'd try i... [...]

Higher order functions as an enabler for lazy evaluation 🔗

Yesterday's post about Generating lambdas for clarity and performance showed how to make use of higher order functions to improve clarity while giv... [...]

Generate lambdas for clarity and performance 🔗

Higher order functions , functions that operate on other functions or returns functions, are familiar to those who have had some experience with fu... [...]

Serializing structs with C++17 structured bindings 🔗

Serializing data in C++ is a surprisingly difficult problem. There are many libraries for it with varying degrees of finesse, power and ease of use... [...]

strings as types with c++17 constexpr lambdas 🔗

Recently I stumbled upon a question by @arne_mertz of Simplify C++ fame (if you don't read that blog, start now!) about using string literals as ty... [...]

Succinct and helpful C++ template compilation errors 🔗

We've all experienced them, the long and unhelpful compilation errors from templates, usually referring to some internal header you didn't even kno... [...]

A flexible lexicographical comparator for C++ structs 🔗

We've all hand crafted comparison operators for structs with many members, and we've all cursed the tedium. It's all right for equality comparison,... [...]

Cache optimizing a priority queue 🔗

I must begin with saying that if you found this because you have a performance problem, you should almost certainly look elsewhere. It is highly un... [...]

Performance observations on a C++ vector of lambdas 🔗

Edit 2015-Jun-7: The source code is available on GitHub When writing unit tests, you typically don't care much about execution speed, but compile t... [...]

Compile time quicksort in idiomatic modern C++ 🔗

A contender for the most useless program ever written just got a much needed overhaul. In 2011 I wrote about compile time quick sort as a challenge... [...]

Sequence Control with the Trompeloeil C++ Mocking Framework 🔗

As previously introduced , the Trompeloeil C++ framework is a new mocking framework for C++14. If you're not at all familiar with Trompeloeil , you... [...]

Introducing the Trompeloeil C++ Mocking framework 🔗

Trompeloeil is a new mocking framework for C++, aimed at ease of use without sacrificing expressive power. In arts, trompeloeil is intended to mock... [...]

Asserting compilation errors in C++ 🔗

Sometimes when crafting an interface, we want to ensure that some illegal constructs leads to compilation errors. After all, a good interface is ea... [...]

strings as types 🔗

As odd as it may seem, I have more than once felt the need to express a string literal as a unique type which can be used as a any class. As an exa... [...]

Compile time messages in C++ 🔗

At times it's desirable to give a message at compile time. Sounds cheezy, eh? Well read on and find out. As an example of the cheezy kind, the comp... [...]

Exploring time keeping in ISO C++ 2011 🔗

A lot has been written about new features coming in the 2011 revision of ISO C++. One that has received surprisingly little attention is the <chron... [...]

Compile time quick sort using C++ variadic templates 🔗

Edit June 4th 2015: This article is very dated. Read this revisiting article for a far better solution C++ is a strange language. In many ways it's... [...]