Aliasing in C++ - Risks, Opportunities and Techniques

Explore the intricacies of aliasing in C++ through this conference talk from CppCon 2022. Delve into the risks, opportunities, and techniques associated with aliasing, a tricky legacy attribute inherited from C. Discover how aliasing can lead to functional bugs and performance penalties in object-oriented code. Learn to identify where aliasing occurs, assess its impact, and implement strategies to avoid it when necessary. Gain insights into harnessing aliasing to your advantage in appropriate situations. Examine various examples of unexpected behavior and performance issues, and develop skills to inspect code for common aliasing pitfalls. Understand the details of strict aliasing rules and how to effectively communicate your intentions to the compiler. Explore the use of strong-typedefs, value-based design, and potential standards proposals to enhance code readability and expressiveness.