Summer WG21 Meeting; trip report
30 Jun 2025This blog has been somewhat quiet during the last few months, mostly due to lack of time (but life has been quite hectic in other aspects!). Aaaand… a good reason to break this silence is to report about the summer WG21 meeting!
A few days ago, 16th to 21st June, the Summer WG21 (ISO C++ committee) meeting took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was, actually, my first face-to-face meeting since I joined the committee in February. The gathering took place in the Millenium Sofia Grand Hotel conference rooms. A room was reserved for each of EWG (Core Language Evolution), LEWG (Library Evolution), CWG (Core Language Wording), and LWG (Library Wording). An additional conference room was shared by all Study Groups, which made use of it according to the agenda. This meeting was decisive for the final inclusion of proposals into the C++26 draft (mind NBs comments).
On Sunday 15th, pm, there was a welcome session for newcomers, courtesy of Jens Maurer and Nina Ranns. The meeting officially started on Monday 16th, 9am, with a plenary session, after which each of the parallel tracks started.
On Saturday 21st, am, another plenary session took place, where the groups summarized and reported their progress, followed by polls for each of the motions that came out of CWG and LWG.
If you are not familiar with the organization and operation of the committee, I strongly recommend this and this reading.
OT: one of the very big surprises of the week was that I met some friends from CERN after quite some time (yes, I am looking at you, Jonas R., Jolly C., and Axel N.!). And I also met new people and had some very interesting conversations, which is unvaluable!
Returning back to C++, for the curious reader, find below a list of (IMO) interesting papers presented and voted in some of the sessions:
- P2996R12 - Reflection for C++26
- P3096R9 - Function Parameter Reflection in Reflection for C++26
- P1306R4 - Expansion Statements
- P3552R3 - Add a Coroutine Task Type
- P3540R1 -
#embedoffset - P3100R2 - Implicit contract assertions
- P3425R0 - Explicit Implicit Template Regions
- P3700R0 - Making Safe C++ Happen
- P3639R0 - The
_BitIntDebate
From the plenary session on Saturday 21st [1], the most remarkable outcome is that Reflection for C++26 was finally approved. IIRC, a total of 6 motions related to reflection were voted (5 from CWG; 1 from LWG)! Also, remarkably, EWG saw an astonishing 54 papers throughout the whole week!
Finally, I would like to thank you all for this awesome week – and see you in the upcoming Kona, HI (USA) meeting, 3rd November - 8th November, but this time (remotely) though teleconference!
[1] A more detailed trip report by Herb Sutter is available here.