Because C++ is more than the language itself, CppCon is excited to offer a Tooling Track at CppCon 2023! The Tooling Track is an explicit place to make room for talks about C++ tools and the C++ ecosystem.
Why give tooling talks? The C++ community wants and needs them! A 2023 survey of C++ practitioners by the ISO C++ Working Group found that the top seven frustrations of C++ users of all levels are:
- Managing libraries my application depends on
- Build times
- Setting up a continuous integration pipeline from scratch (automated builds, tests, …)
- Managing CMake projects
- Concurrency safety: Races, deadlocks, performance bottlenecks
- Setting up a development environment from scratch (compiler, build system, IDE, …)
- Debugging issues in my code
For inspiration, CppCon 2022 had a Tooling Track that included talks about:
- CMake and C++20 modules
- C++ packaging
- More C++ packaging
- Cross-building while managing packages
- GitHub features for C++ developers
- Linux debuginfo formats
- Observability tools beyond gdb and printf
- Compilation time benchmarks for C++20 modules
- Reproducible development environments for C++
What should the talks be about? More or less, if it’s a talk for C++ engineers but not about software theory or the C++ language itself, it’s probably a talk about the C++ ecosystem, and therefore is welcome in the CppCon Tooling Track.
Who should submit? You!
The most popular tooling talk from 2022 according to YouTube views was C++ Coding with Neovim. This talk was presented by a NeoVim user and enthusiast, but not by any means the inventor or project owner of NeoVim or any relevant NeoVim plugins. The CppCon audience is full of developers (including a lot of presenters from other tracks!) wanting more how-to content about things like dependency management, project structure, build systems, and so on. Often that content is excellent to be given from the perspective of an experienced user of a tool or workflow.
Of course, the Tooling Track is a place for industry experts and maintainers of widely adopted C++ tools as well. It is an excellent way for vendors of and advocates for C++ tools to raise awareness for the projects they are excited to share. CppCon is a great opportunity to get out from behind the ticket trackers and meet face-to-face with current and potential end users!
For more information about the submission process, please visit the wider CppCon 2023 Call for Submissions and the Main Program Submissions page. Alternately, feel free to email tooling_track@cppcon.org with any questions or concerns you may have.
Also reach out to tooling_track@cppcon.org if you are interested in getting involved in the CppCon Tooling Track.
Tooling Track chair