CppCon 2026

Modern programming languages offer powerful tools for creating intuitive, expressive code, but few are as frequently debated as function and operator overloading. While these features allow developers to write code that mimics natural mathematical notation, such as A+B for complex numbers or vectors, they also introduce significant risks of ambiguity, hidden performance costs, and unintuitive behavior if misused.

This talk explores the balance between expressive power and code maintainability. We will dive into the mechanics of compile-time polymorphism, examining how compilers resolve overloaded calls and the strict rules governing arity, precedence, and associativity. Beyond the what and the how, we will talk about the when and the why with examples.