C++ Training

The purpose of this training is to offer engineers a hands-on, progressive learning experience that builds both foundational and modern C++ proficiency through guided implementation challenges.

---

🎯 Goals

This curriculum is designed to:

• Strengthen understanding of C++ core language features, object lifetime, and templates
• Provide deep insight into memory management, RAII, and resource ownership
• Explore STL-like design by building reusable types from scratch
• Reinforce the material found in the C++ Core Guidelines
• Introduce useful tools for analyzing, testing, and improving your code

Note: This series assumes familiarity with C++ basics (like functions and classes) but provides detailed guidance around idiomatic resource management and generic programming patterns.

---

👥 Intended Audience

This training is for engineers who:

• Already have a firm grasp of C++ syntax
• Have solid experience with C#, python, or another object-oriented language
• Want to go deeper into advanced C++ syntax and idioms

---

📚 Training Structure

Each lesson consists of:

• Source code for a type or small library
• Accompanying Catch2-based unit tests
• Code coverage tracking (via lcov)
• Progressive skill-building with real-world semantics and language mechanics

---

🧭 Lesson Overview

✅ Lesson 0 - Building Vector<T>

• Builds a custom Vector<T> container
• Explores manual memory management and RAII
• Introduces placement new, object lifetime, and move semantics
• Covers the Rule of 5 (copy/move construction/assignment and destructor)
• Provides robust Catch2-based tests in lesson_0/tests
• Benchmarks behavior against STL concepts like std::vector

🧪 Lesson 1 - Iterators and emplace_back (Coming Soon)

• Adds iterators to support range-based for-loops and algorithms
• Introduces emplace_back() and perfect forwarding
• Compares value semantics to in-place construction
• Enables use of algorithms like std::equal

---

🛠️ Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

   mkdir dev && cd dev
   git clone https://github.com/pvarcholik/CppTraining.git
   cd CppTraining

2. Install vcpkg (additional details) and required dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
   cd vcpkg
   ./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh
   vcpkg install ms-gsl catch2
   export VCPKG_ROOT=~/dev/vcpkg

   Note: Consider adding VCPKG_ROOT to your .bashrc file

3. Install lcov for code coverage support

   sudo apt install lcov

4. Build and run from the command-line:

   cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
   cmake --build build
   ./build/src/common/tests/cpp_training_common_tests
   ./build/src/lesson_0/tests/cpp_training_lesson_0_tests

5. Generate code coverage reports:

   ./scripts/run_coverage.sh lesson_0

   This outputs index.html to build/coverage/cpp_training_lesson_0_tests_html/lesson_0/include/index.html Open that file in a browser to view code coverage details.
6. Build and run through VSCode:
   • Open the command palette

• Run tasks using:

• Tasks: Run Build Task (or Ctrl+Shift+B) and choose from the list:

  Available Tasks

  Task	Purpose
  Generate All Lessons (DEBUG)	Configures the CMake project using the vcpkg toolchain
  Build All Lessons (DEBUG)	Builds all common and lesson modules
  Run code coverage for selected targets	Prompts for a lesson/test target, runs unit tests, and creates the HTML coverage report

🤝 Feedback and Contributions

This curriculum is built with longevity and extensibility in mind. If you're:

• Enjoying the material
• Finding gaps in the explanations
• Hitting issues during setup or while learning
• Or have ideas to improve the exercises

…please consider contributing or reaching out!

Ways to contribute:

• Open an internal issue or pull request
• Suggest enhancements to setup, code, or tests
• Propose new topics or improvements for upcoming lessons

Your feedback helps evolve this into a durable and flexible training path for modern C++.