C++ language upgrade featuring modules and coroutines is set to be released before the end of the year Credit: TNS Sofres Having attained final technical approval from ISO on September 4, C++ 20 is expected to be formally published toward the end of this year, introducing new features such as modules and coroutines. Designed in 1979 for systems programming, C++ remains a vital language. C++ was even found to be the fastest-growing language in the Tiobe Index of September 2020, where it ranks in fourth place behind C, Java, and Python. Tiobe cites the C++ 20 specification as one of the factors giving the language a boost. New capabilities in C++ 20 include: Modules, enabling programmers to use modular components. Concepts, used to specify template requirements and support generic programming. Concepts promise to improve code quality. A synchronization library, for better support of fine-grained hardware control. Compile-time computation improvements. Coroutines, which generalize subroutines for use in nonpreemptive multi-tasking. Standardized support for coroutines in the standard library is still lacking, however. This support is eyed for C++ 23. Ranges, which provide components to deal with ranges of elements. Feature test macros, a set of macros that correspond to language and library features from C++ 11 or later. Precalculated hash values in lookup. Expansion statements to enable compile-time repetition of a statement for each element of a tuple, array, class, parameter pack, or range. Monadic operations for std::optionalcode. Implicit creation of objects for low-level manipulation. Improved context-sensitive recognition of import and module to aid non-compiler tools to determine build dependencies. New rangified algorithms. A contracts capability that had been expected in C++ 20, to specify pre-conditions, post-conditions, and assertions, has been removed. Contracts is now marked as a C++ 23 item, although it may not make it into that release, either. C++Programming LanguagesSoftware Development