Asynchronous Programming with C++

Design and develop high-performance software solutions by using concurrent and asynchronous techniques provided by the most modern features in C++20 and C++23

Key Features

• Learn how to use modern C++ features, including futures, promises, async, and coroutines to build asynchronous solutions
• Develop cross-platform network and low-level I/O projects with Boost.Asio
• Master optimization techniques by understanding how software adapts to machine hardware

Book Description

As hardware advancements continue to accelerate, bringing greater memory capacity and more CPU cores, software must evolve to adapt to efficiently use all available resources and reduce idle CPU cycles. In this book, two seasoned software engineers with about five decades of combined experience will teach you how to implement concurrent and asynchronous solutions in C++.

You’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of parallel programming paradigms—covering concurrent, asynchronous, parallel, multithreading, reactive, and event-driven programming, as well as dataflows—and see how threads, processes, and services are related. Moving into the heart of concurrency, the authors will guide you in creating and managing threads and exploring C++’s thread-safety mechanisms, including mutual exclusion, atomic operations, semaphores, condition variables, latches, and barriers. With this solid foundation, you’ll focus on pure asynchronous programming, discovering futures, promises, the async function, and coroutines. The book takes you step by step through using Boost.Asio and Boost.Cobalt to develop network and low-level I/O solutions, proven performance and optimization techniques, and testing and debugging asynchronous software.

By the end of this C++ book, you’ll be able to implement high-performance software using modern asynchronous C++ techniques.

What you will learn

• Explore the different parallel paradigms and know when to apply them
• Acquire deep knowledge of thread management and safety mechanisms
• Understand asynchronous programming in C++, including coroutines
• Leverage network asynchronous programming by using Boost.Asio and Boost.Cobalt
• Add proven performance and optimization techniques to your toolbox
• Find out how to test and debug asynchronous software

Who this book is for

This book is for developers who have some experience using C++, regardless of their professional field. If you want to improve your C++ skills and learn how to develop high-performance software using the latest modern C++ features, this book is for you.

Table of Contents

1. Parallel Programming Paradigms
2. Processes, Threads, and Services
3. How to Create and Manage Threads in C++
4. Thread Synchronization with Locks
5. Atomic Operations
6. Promises and Futures
7. The Async Function
8. Asynchronous Programming Using Coroutines
9. Asynchronous Programming Using Boost.Asio
10. Coroutines with Boost.Cobalt
11. Logging and Debugging Asynchronous Software
12. Sanitizing and Testing Asynchronous Software
13. Improving Asynchronous Software Performance

About the Authors

Javier Reguera-Salgado is a seasoned software engineer with 19+ years of experience, specializing in high-performance computing, real-time data processing, and communication protocols. Skilled in C++, Python, and a variety of other programming languages and technologies, his work spans low-latency distributed systems, mobile apps, web solutions, and enterprise products. He has contributed to research centers, start-ups, blue-chip companies, and quantitative investment firms in Spain and the UK. Javier holds a PhD cum laude in high-performance computing from the University of Vigo, Spain.

Juan Antonio Rufes is a software engineer with 30 years of experience, specializing in low-level and systems programming, primarily in C, C++, 0x86 assembly, and Python. His expertise includes Windows and Linux optimization, Windows kernel drivers for antivirus and encryption, TCP/IP protocol analysis, and low-latency financial systems such as smart order routing and FPGA-based trading systems. He has worked with software companies, investment banks, and hedge funds. Juan holds an MSc in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.