cpp_refresh

Synopsis

A C++ project focused on implementing and exploring various data structures and memory management techniques in modern C++. It serves as a practical exercise for C++17 features and common patterns found in performance-sensitive applications.

Core Components

• UniqueBuffer: A RAII-compliant, move-only buffer that manages a dynamically allocated array. It provides safe and exclusive ownership of a memory block.
• ArenaAllocator: A custom memory allocator that pre-allocates a fixed-size memory region (arena) and services allocation requests from this region. This can improve performance by reducing individual heap allocations and improving memory locality.
• SmallVector: A sequence container similar to std::vector but optimized for a small number of elements by initially using stack-allocated storage. It transitions to heap allocation if the number of elements exceeds its initial stack capacity.

Building the Project

Prerequisites

• A C++17 compliant compiler (e.g., GCC, Clang, MSVC).
• CMake (version 3.15 or higher).

Steps

git clone https://github.com/pbgodwin/cpp_refresh # You'll need to replace this with your actual repo URL
cd cpp_refresh
cmake -B build -S .
cmake --build build

Running Tests

The project uses Catch2 for unit testing. Tests are built as part of the default build process.

To run tests:

cd build
ctest

Or, by directly running the executable:

./cpp_refresh # (or cpp_refresh.exe on Windows)