C++ Development with Claude.ai or Claude Code

Note

This project leverages Claude.ai and or Claude Code for C++ development assistance.

Claude Code can help with:

Code Development

• Writing new C++ code with modern standards (C++11/14/17/20/23)
• Implementing algorithms, data structures, and design patterns
• Generating boilerplate code and class scaffolding
• Creating unit tests and test fixtures

Code Review & Debugging

• Analyzing code for potential bugs, memory leaks, and undefined behavior
• Identifying performance bottlenecks and optimization opportunities
• Reviewing code for best practices and C++ idioms
• Suggesting refactoring improvements

Problem Solving

• Explaining complex C++ concepts (templates, smart pointers, move semantics, etc.)
• Debugging compiler errors and understanding error messages
• Recommending appropriate STL containers and algorithms
• Providing guidance on memory management and RAII principles

Build & Tooling

• Assistance with CMake configuration
• Help with build system setup and dependency management
• Guidance on compiler flags and optimization settings

Claude can work with your existing codebase through file uploads and provide context-aware suggestions. For complex tasks, it can create complete, compilable code examples and explain the reasoning behind implementation decisions.

C++ Core Guidelines

Note

The C++ Core Guidelines is a collaborative effort led by Bjarne Stroustrup and Herb Sutter to establish best practices for modern C++. These guidelines aim to help developers write safer, more efficient, and more maintainable code by providing concrete recommendations on:

Resource management and ownership

• Type safety and interfaces
• Memory safety and error handling
• Concurrency and performance
• Code organization and style

The guidelines are designed to be supported by static analysis tools and focus on helping developers avoid common pitfalls while leveraging modern C++ features (C++11 and beyond). They emphasize writing code that is not just correct, but also clear, maintainable, and efficient.

Key principles:

• Express ideas directly in code
• Write code that is type-safe and resource-safe by default
• Don't leak resources
• Don't waste time or space
• Prefer compile-time checking to run-time checking

Evaluated C++ programs

Note

Claude.ai and Claude Code can evaluate any C++ program.

See the examples and generated reports

• A dynamic polymorphism
• A global variable with a managed lifetime
• A global variable with a managed lifetime in C++23
• A random number generator wrapper
• Two threads and I/O
• A producer consumer pattern
• Write C++23 code to implement an AVL tree
• Evaluation of AVL tree in C++23
• A pool allocator adhering to the std::allocator contract
• Write C++20 code to implement page cache