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Overloading in Overdrive: A Generic Data-Centric Messaging Library for DDS

Slides of my Silicon Valley Code Camp (2013) talk are now available. If you attended this session in person please evaluate it. I take feedback/comments seriously!

Abstract: When it comes to sending data across a network, applications send either binary or self-describing data (XML). Both approaches have merits. Data Distribution Service (DDS) combines the best of both in what’s called “data-centric messaging”. DDS shares the type description once, upfront, and later on sends binary data that meets the type description. You typically use IDL or XSD to specify the types and run them through a code generator for type-safe wrapper APIs for your application in your programming language. Simple and fast! As it turns out, however, C++11 bends the rules once again. In this presentation you will learn about a template-based C++11 messaging library that gives the DDS code generator a run for its money. The types and objects in your C++11 application are mapped to standard DDS X-Types type descriptions and serialized format, respectively, using template meta-programming. If you have never heard about SFINAE you won’t stop talking about it after you see "overloading in overdrive" in this presentation. What’s more? I will share my newfound hatred for std::vector of bool/enums. This presentation will cover DDS-XTypes, DDS_TypeCode, DDS_DynamicData, STL, type_traits, Boost Fusion, and overloading with enable_if (lots and lots of it!).

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