16 Years Doing C++ Standardization Work: A Personal Retrospective
Nevin ":-)" Liber
I've been working on C++ standardization for over a decade and a half, and have been reflecting (pun intended) on what has been accomplished, increased participation, and why I keep doing it.
I'll talk about my personal journey in how I got involved with C++, with C++ standardization, the lessons I learned (and am continuing to learn) both participating and chairing, getting proposals through the committee, where we are now, where I think it is heading, and how you can help.
Maybe I will convince some of you to attend a meeting to see for yourselves what we do, and perhaps even contribute to C++29 or beyond.
Nevin ":-)" Liber
Nevin “🙂” Liber is a Computer Scientist in the ALCF (Argonne Leadership Computing Facility) division of Argonne National Laboratory, where he works on Kokkos and Aurora. He also represents Argonne on the C++, C & SYCL Committees. For C++ he is the Admin Chair, Vice Chair of LEWGI/SG18 and Chair of the US Delegation.
Back when he started out working at Bell Labs over three decades ago, a friend of his called and asked “What do you know about C++? You folks invented it!” That was enough to get a relatively shy junior engineer to go find the local expert so he could go play with it, and the rest is history! He has worked in C++ across various industries and platforms (big data, low-latency, operating systems, embedded, telephony and now exascale computing, just to name a few). He has also been a C++ Committee member since 2010 and hosted both the C++ and C standards meetings in Chicago.