Breaking Dependencies: Type Erasure - A Design Analysis - Klaus Iglberger - CppCon 2021

--- This session is part of the Software Design Track. “If I could go back in time and had the power to change C , rather than adding virtual function, I would add language support for type erasure …” (Eric Niebler, June 19, 2020, Twitter). For many developers type erasure is superior to inheritance. And indeed, it has proven itself to be a powerful design pattern, helping to significantly reduce coupling between software entities. This talk will give a short introduction to type erasure, with a particular focus on the design aspect of the technique. After attending this session, attendees will understand why type erasure provides such a strong decoupling and why this makes it superior to inheritance in terms of dependency management. --- Klaus Iglberger Freelancer C Trainer/Consultant Klaus Iglberger is a freelancing C trainer and consultant. He has finished his PhD in computer science in 20