Presentation material for my iCSC 2020 talk "C++ ABI: the only thing that is more important than performance". The slides can be found here.
"Leaving no room for a lower-level language", this has always been the declared mantra of the C++ language development. At the same time C++ is an old language and its legacy affects possible performance improvements in the STL due to ABI stability concerns. ABI stands for "Application Binary Interface" and its stability is often put over performance on the one hand while on the other hand, "ABI" or even its stability is not mentioned a single time in the entire C++ standard.In this talk I will explain what ABI stability means, why it is not mentioned in the standard but is still lethal to many proposals, and discuss some recent implications. I will not be able to present solutions to the dilemma; the hope is to encourage attendees to make their mind and to attend ongoing discussions about this vital topic.