Speaking

Speaking

Upcoming Talks

Compile-Time Polymorphism for Runtime-Flexible Systems: Lessons from OpenJDK

CppCon 2026 | Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 15:15-16:15 MDT | Gaylord Rockies, Aurora, Colorado | Session

Your system picks a strategy at runtime – a config flag, a command-line argument – and the hot path runs millions of times per second. Virtual dispatch charges you on every call; templates give you the performance but lock the choice in at compile time. This session builds a layered architecture of compile-time patterns that keeps inheritance-style extensibility without paying for a vtable, developing the techniques incrementally against OpenJDK’s garbage collection barriers, where each GC algorithm composes a different set of barriers on one of the hottest paths in the JVM. Along the way we weigh the approach against std::variant, function pointers, and plain virtual dispatch. No JVM knowledge required.

Past Talks

Zero-Cost Abstractions in Large Systems: Lessons from OpenJDK’s Barrier Refactoring

C++ Online 2026 | Video | Session | Slides (PDF)

How large-scale C++ systems balance performance with design flexibility. Using OpenJDK’s memory-access barriers as a case study, this talk demonstrates how a declarative, template-driven architecture can maintain runtime adaptability while eliminating abstraction overhead, combining runtime pluggability with compile-time composition across demanding C++ domains.

Topics I Speak About

  • Compile-time polymorphism – CRTP, template metaprogramming, and the patterns that let production systems achieve runtime flexibility without virtual dispatch overhead
  • Runtime dispatch mechanisms – head-to-head comparisons of virtual dispatch, function pointers, std::variant, and template-based approaches with real benchmarks and assembly analysis
  • JVM internals for C++ developers – how a 1M+ line C++ codebase (OpenJDK HotSpot) solves real engineering problems with patterns you can steal
  • Systems performance – memory tracking, logging frameworks, and the design decisions behind production infrastructure

Get In Touch

Interested in having me speak at your conference or meetup? Reach out via LinkedIn or GitHub.