Exploring future C++ features within a geometric modeling context

Abstract

The development of the C++ programming language and its standard library has undergone a renaissance since the introduction of the C++11 standard, making the language more relevant than ever, through modern features, simplification and expansion of the standard library. Comparing past and future feature sets (C++17, C++20, ...) similar to comparing different programming languages. In this article we look at how new and upcoming features of the language can be utilized to ease the development of domain specific application areas through features such as generic programming, compile-time polymorphism and type-safety. We provide representative examples by application to differential geometry by modeling hierarchical structure for parametric object evaluation.