Introduction

I recently prepared a comprehensive presentation on Modern C++ that explores why C++ remains uniquely positioned for high-performance systems in 2025.

This isn’t about saying other languages are bad - I genuinely love C#, Go, and Node.js. They’re excellent tools that make developers productive and happy. But C++ has unique capabilities that are impossible to achieve elsewhere: compile-time programming, zero-cost abstractions, decades of battle-tested libraries, and complete control over memory layout.

With great power comes great responsibility - and that’s exactly what this presentation explores.

👉 View the full presentation here

What You’ll Learn

The presentation is divided into three parts:

Part 0: Performance at Scale

Why does 1% performance improvement matter? When you’re running millions of servers, 1% means thousands of physical machines. The presentation includes real benchmark data comparing C++, Rust, C#, Java, Go, Node.js, and Python on CPU-intensive workloads.

Part I: The Hidden Costs of Managed Languages

A deep dive into what you’re actually paying for with Garbage Collection:

  • Type metadata overhead and memory costs
  • C#‘s compaction process and why it’s expensive
  • Go’s TCMalloc-inspired design and internal fragmentation tradeoff
  • Write barriers and their impact on every pointer write
  • Cache locality problems with “arrays of references”
  • Virtual dispatch preventing inlining and optimization

Part II: Modern C++ Features

How C++ evolved from the “manual memory nightmare” into a language with safety, ergonomics, AND performance:

  • Smart pointers and modern containers - memory safety without GC
  • Lambdas, ranges, structured bindings - clean, expressive code
  • Coroutines (C++20) - async/await that can be optimized to zero overhead
  • std::expected (C++23) - explicit error handling like Rust
  • Compile-time programming - constexpr, concepts, and zero-cost abstractions
  • Plus: Boost.Fiber for goroutine-style concurrency without GC

What Makes This Different

The presentation includes:

  • Visual memory layout diagrams showing exactly what’s happening
  • Side-by-side code comparisons (C++ vs C# vs Go)
  • Real performance numbers with cycle counts
  • Live Mermaid.js diagrams explaining GC algorithms
  • Before/after examples showing “Old C++” vs “Modern C++”

It’s designed for developers curious about engineering tradeoffs, especially those coming from Go, C#, or Java backgrounds.

The Core Message

Every language makes tradeoffs. C++ is not “better” - it’s different:

✅ Compile-time programming - impossible in other mainstream languages
✅ Zero-cost abstractions - ergonomic code that compiles to optimal machine code
✅ Full control - memory layout, cache behavior, every allocation
✅ No hidden costs - no GC pauses, no reflection overhead, no write barriers

But with that power comes responsibility - you need to understand memory, lifetimes, and performance characteristics. That’s why Go, C#, and other languages exist and thrive. They make different tradeoffs that are often the right choice for most projects.

The presentation helps you understand when each approach makes sense.

Check It Out

The presentation is interactive, with syntax highlighting, diagrams, and a terminal-inspired aesthetic. Perfect for a deep Saturday afternoon dive into language design tradeoffs.

→ View the full presentation

Questions or thoughts? Reach out:

Tags: #cpp #performance #go #csharp