Proxy 4: The Next Leap in C++ Polymorphism
4 days ago
- #library
- #polymorphism
- #C++
- Proxy 4 is a production-grade, modern C++ library for runtime polymorphism, now mature after years of use in the Windows OS codebase.
- Proxy enables polymorphic code without inheritance or traditional virtual functions, offering portability, flexibility in object lifetimes, and high performance.
- New features in Proxy 4 include composable facade capabilities (skills), easy borrowing and weak references (proxy_view and weak_proxy), and shared ownership APIs (make_proxy_shared).
- Proxy 4 introduces smarter dispatch and conversion, recursive facade patterns, and quality improvements like bitwise trivially relocatable support and C++20 modules.
- Major version compatibility guidelines are provided for upgrading from Proxy 3 to Proxy 4, ensuring smooth transitions for large codebases.
- Proxy 4 is header-only, cross-platform, and supports GCC, Clang, MSVC, and NVIDIA HPC compilers, with improved diagnostics and debugging experience.