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On the Current State of SG20

Study Group on Education: Past, Present, and Future

JC van Winkel

Florian

Sattler

Wednesday, June 14

Room: Nota

14:00 - 15:30 In session

15:30 - 15:45 afternoon break

15:45 - 17:30 In session

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Agenda - Varna

We follow WG21 P&P and ISO CoC

Who can participate? See here

Find a Scribe
Recap: What happened in the last year(s)
The SG20 Workflow

Overview: How does our workflow currently work
How to contribute
How to get more buy-in from people?
How to link topics and other material?

Integrating Education (SG20) better into the overall committee process

We did suggest sending proposals via SG20 for teachability
Audience Tables (https://wg21.link/p1700)

Practical: Let’s work on some new topics

Re. participating (quoting https://isocpp.org/std/meetings-and-participation):

We welcome anyone who wants to attend a meeting of WG 21 or a subgroup as a guest; this lets you participate and argue and do most everything, except only you can’t actually participate in the “plenary session” change approval polls (the full-WG 21 polls that take place three times a year, in a “virtual plenary” or on the Saturday of a face-to-face/hybrid meeting).

However, if you plan to attend any WG 21 or subgroup meeting (including telecon) as a guest, we need to have notice that you’re coming so that we can notify ISO about our guest list (and for physical meetings be sure there are enough seats and refreshments, name tags, etc.). So if you plan to attend a WG 21 or subgroup meeting, send us an email telling us you will be a guest to let us know you’re coming. You are welcome and we look forward to seeing you!

To continue participating after your first meeting as a guest, you have two main options:

Normally you would join the national body (NB) for the country where you live. This makes you a full WG 21 member, including to vote in plenary approval polls. If you are interested in joining your national body but aren’t sure whom to contact to get started, send email to the active national body chairs here.
You can participate as a “long-term guest” via the Standard C++ Foundation’s program that makes it possible for anyone to participate as a Foundation alternate representative at no cost. This lets you participate the same way as a guest, including to participate fully in subgroups but not vote in plenary approval polls. If you have already attended a meeting as a guest and are interested in becoming a Foundation alternate to participate at additional meetings, send email here.

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Recap

Standing online document
33 topics in 9 modules
Multiple focus groups (EU, NA, …)

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The SG20 Workflow

WG21

Provide the distilled information through an online document

Collect wisdom from teachers and committee members.

Distill wisdom and information into guidelines for teachers.

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Structure

Raw Document

sources

├── ...

├── modules

│ ├── compilation-model

│ │ ├── linkage.md

│ │ └── translation-units.md

│ ├── compile-time-programming

│ │ ├── concepts.md

│ │ ├── …

│ │ └── requires-expressions.md

│ ├── error-handling

│ ├── functions

│ ├── …

│ ├── type-system

│ └── user-defined-types

├── ...

Teaching Module:

A group of topics that are related.

Teaching Topic:

Collects and groups together important teaching information about a specific topic, subdividing the information into fundamental/main/advanced.

P1725: Modular Topic Design

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How topics are structured

All topics follow the same structure, laid out in P2193 and implemented as our topic skeleton (a template really, but ehhh, confusion)

Each topic is sub-divided into 3 levels:

Foundational

This level shows the learner the idea and the basic ways of using it.

Main

This level shows mainstream uses and techniques.

Advanced

This level points to further information suitable for an expert.

Foundational and Main then each list:

Required knowledge (what is necessary to start with this topic/level)
Learning objectives (per level objectives allow us to create a graph of topics)
Caveats (potential problems or sharp corners)
Points that should be covered (important things that should not be overlooked)

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Overview: How does our SG20 workflow currently work

Online Document

Pull Request

Changes

Tentative Ready

SG20 Meeting

Raw Document

SG20 approved

feedback

external feedback

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How to contribute?

Contributor roles:

Specialized contributor who wants to have a specific topic in the guidelines
Experienced instructors with an opinion to participate in a discussion group for some topic.
A Polisher who has used the guidelines (or has opinions from other experiences) and adds small improvements to varying topics.

Note: All roles facilitate doing "snack sized" contributions, where a single "work item" takes 1 to 2 hours of work

If you’re interested, reach out ot JC van Winkel or Florian Sattler

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How to get more buy-in from people?

Having sub-group discussions has already helped a bit to get people going.
Post a simplified workflow guide online?

Problem: Currently, the are only a few active people in SG20 that work on new teaching topics or extend existing ones. Far to few, to get a good coverage of C++. How can be integrate more people into the process and enable them to develop and extend teaching topics?

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How to link topics and other material?

Potential types of links:

is required to understand
would be good to know
external reference
…?

Problem: We need to link to other topics and external sources. What should the different semantics behind the links be? Meaning, what do we want/need to communicated to a curriculum designer. Does this link indicate a hard knowledge requirement, a good ordering, or just a hint?

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Integrating Education (SG20) better into the overall committee process

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Integrating Education better into the committee process

Problem: Currently, education is not a first class citizen and potential negative impacts of papers on the teachability are treated as an afterthought in the committee process. This is understandable to a degree, as the standard process and language design require a very high technical focus.

WG21

Committee Member (Language Expert)

C++ Standard

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Integrating Education better into the committee process

Problem: Currently, education is not a first class citizen and potential negative impacts of papers on the teachability are treated as an afterthought in the committee process. This is understandable to a degree, as the standard process and language design require a very high technical focus.

WG21

Committee Member (Language Expert)

C++ Standard

Experts

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Integrating Education better into the committee process

Problem: Currently, education is not a first class citizen and potential negative impacts of papers on the teachability are treated as an afterthought in the committee process. This is understandable to a degree, as the standard process and language design require a very high technical focus.

WG21

Committee Member (Language Expert)

C++ Standard

Experts

Advanced Users

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Integrating Education better into the committee process

Problem: Currently, education is not a first class citizen and potential negative impacts of papers on the teachability are treated as an afterthought in the committee process. This is understandable to a degree, as the standard process and language design require a very high technical focus.

WG21

Committee Member (Language Expert)

C++ Standard

Experts

Users

Advanced Users

WG21

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Integrating Education better into the committee process

Problem: Currently, education is not a first class citizen and potential negative impacts of papers on the teachability are treated as an afterthought in the committee process. This is understandable to a degree, as the standard process and language design require a very high technical focus.

WG21

Committee Member (Language Expert)

C++ Standard

Experts

Users

Advanced Users

WG21

"log"-scale

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Integrating Education better into the committee process

Audience tables (P1700)

Who uses → What of the proposed feature?
What levels do we want?
Integrate in "how to write a proposal" ?

How should we connect SG20 with other SGs/LEWG/EWG?

When should SG20 be involved?
How should SG20 be involved?

Problem: Currently, education is not a first class citizen and potential negative impacts of papers on the teachability are treated as an afterthought in the committee process. This is understandable to a degree, as the standard process and language design require a very high technical focus.

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Let’s work on some new topics

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Let’s work on some new topics

We split into small groups, about 4-5 people.
Each group picks a topic and prepares a drafts.
In the end, we discuss the topics together and propose them on github.

Open Topics: (module name: topic name)

C++ compilation model: Name Mangling
C++ compilation model: Phases of Translation
Program design: Resource Handling
Program design: Algorithms
Tooling: Compiler
User defined types: Member Functions

Timeline:

15:45 – 16:00 Intro

16:00 – 16:45 Group work

16:45 – 17:30 Discussion

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Level Definitions

Foundational: This level gives the learner the idea that a facility exists, what benefits it offers, and the basic ways of using it.

E.g., Using user-defined literals

Main: This level shows mainstream uses and techniques. For abstraction and organizational mechanisms it also demonstrates how to build them. This level should also give the learner a basic (but not detailed) understanding of how a facility might be implemented so that the learner can have a first-order understanding of any costs involved.

E.g., Implementing custom user-defined literals

Advanced: This level gives information suitable for an expert. For most topics there is an expert level of knowledge that most programmers rarely need and techniques that require detailed understanding of language rules or library implementation.

E.g., Special user-defined literal syntax

Timeline:

15:45 – 16:00 Intro

16:00 – 16:45 Group work

16:45 – 17:30 Discussion