C++ Truths

The "Concurrency Revolution" is coming at us fast (to gulp us) whether you are ready for it or not! Please see a presentation (audio/video) by Hurb Sutter at parc. Our favorite language, C++, is also not far behind in providing standard concurrency support to the language/library. Please see: Threads and memory model for C++. I feel there is exciting time ahead and a lot of really cool stuff to continue this blog for many years to come!

A "thunk" appears to be an overloaded term in computer science. Use of the word "thunk" goes back to Algol 60 implementation. In general, as I understand it, thunk is a function which is used to replace something. More often than not, it is auto-generated. This "something" could be an expression (in a programming language) or an address. In programming language world, a known usecase is call-by-name. The mechanism of dynamic linking (.DLL/.so files) uses local thunks to invoke dynamic linker at run-time and replace the thunk with the actual function for all the later invocations of the function. Please see how this technique can be exploited to modify program behavior at run-time . In the C++ world, transparent replacement of addresses is very useful. An example is, adjusting pointers when virtual functions are invoked using one of the many possible base classes of the derived most class when multiple inheritance is involved. Depending upon which base cla...

There are several cool implementation techniques of C++ object layout, especially when multiple inheritance, virtual functions and virtual inheritance is involved. Understanding the consequences of these rather advanced concepts in the language on the implementation of the language is quite interesting. There are several "gotchas" involved. Example, it is highly recommended to invoke the virtual base class's constructor in the derived most class when there is a diamond shape inheritance hierarchy. It is a pretty eloborate subject so I won't duplicate the same thing here. I would just assemble some really good articles on the topic. Lippman's book "Inside The C++ Object Model" talks about it at length. Please see: C++ Object layout in multiple inheritance Adjustor thunks Multiple inheritance in C++ (Stroustrup)