There are so many standards and idioms that it gets confusing. There are still legacy codebases out there — some codebase still use C++98 as their standard, others use C++11... And with Unreal Engine, the modern C++ standard is C++14, right? There are things like smart pointers, but some places don't even use them. I feel like there are just too many features. When I saw template metaprogramming — that new feature — I realized I have no talent for C++.

I have developed things with C++98, C++11 and C++14. Every of these standards are so vast, so remembering everything (even in a single standard) is not possible. Instead of knowing everything, I first fix the standard I want or need to work with.

Then I design the thing I want to build. I always design what I want to build beforehand. This takes a couple of iterations from high level to low-ish level. That last design becomes a bit language dependent. Then I select some of the core tools that I'm going to use (which kind of pointers, classes or structs, etc.)

With that design in mind, I go "library shopping" both for file formats (if any) or other stuff like vectors, etc.

Armed with the reference docs of these, I write my code with the toolbelt I have built for the project.

Some things are hard, but they are not impossible. I find thinking like compiler helps a lot.

> When I saw template metaprogramming — that new feature — I realized I have no talent for C++.

It's not a new feature. And tbh, compared to Typescript, C++ templates are tame ;)

(but yeah, deciding when to stop digging into the template metaprogramming rabbit hole requires some common sense and sanity, too much template complexity is almost never worth the hassle)

> And with Unreal Engine, the modern C++ standard is C++14, right?

Unreal Engine depends on C++20 at this point.

https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/unreal-engine/epic-c...

This is true of any language. Python with flask vs django, with/without type hints. JavaScript with anhular and vue.

The varying standards are no different to major python versions or go versions - arguably there’s even less between most versions than there is in your average go release.

The differences in apps and frameworks don’t matter for day to day - std::string, Unreal’s FString and QT’s QString all are similar enough that 99.9% of the time.

Metaprogramming is one of those things; you either write it or you don’t. Knowing some basics is required but the vast majority of people use a handful of pre existing things without understanding the nuances of how it works under the hood.