An Overview of C++26: Concurrency

C++26 introduces significant advancements in concurrency, particularly through the std::execution framework, which facilitates asynchronous execution across various resources. This framework includes three main components: schedulers, senders, and receivers, enabling developers to manage asynchronous tasks more effectively. The article provides an example demonstrating how to use these components to create a simple asynchronous pipeline that outputs a message and performs arithmetic operations. Additionally, C++26 enhances its arithmetic capabilities with saturation arithmetic, which limits the results of operations to a specified range, preventing overflow or underflow. This feature includes operations like addition and multiplication that clamp results to defined minimum and maximum values. Furthermore, debugging support is improved with functions such as std::breakpoint, which allows developers to pause execution and interact with a debugger. The article concludes by mentioning the introduction of Read-Copy Update (RCU) and Hazard Pointers, which address challenges in lock-free data structures, although these topics will be explored in more detail in future posts.

- C++26 enhances concurrency management with the std::execution framework.

- Saturation arithmetic limits operation results to prevent overflow and underflow.

- New debugging functions improve the developer experience in C++26.

- Read-Copy Update and Hazard Pointers address issues in lock-free data structures.