http://clang.llvm.org/docs/BlockLanguageSpec.txt
Looks really cool.
However,
Can anyone enlighten me on this?
Blocks are, essentially, a way to pass code and scope around as data. They re known in some other languages as closures and anonymous functions.
Here s an article with more details and code examples.
NanoTech already linked to an explanation of blocks. As for how this relates to C++ let me state my personal opinion: This extension is not useful in C++. Here s why:
Regarding the block reference type: We already have "polymorphic functions" which can carry some state around, see boost::function, tr1::function. C++ will include a polished version of this in its next standard library. The advantage over "C Blocks" is that you don t need to mess with things like Block_copy and Block_release. These polymorphic functions objects are smart enough to do their own memory managing.
Regarding the block literal syntax: It s a nice syntax that allows you to put the code where it "belongs" without the need for much boilerplate code. But the same applies to its C++ counter part: C++0x lambdas. But C++0x lambda feature also allows you to use lambda objects in tight inner loops without high performance costs of function calls due to possible inlining.
Since C++0x lambdas can be also used in situations where performance is an issue and std::function is easier to handle w.r.t. memory management the addition of "C Blocks" to C++ seems redundant. "C blocks" seem to be more tailored to languages that don t support templates or destructors.
For more on blocks and how they work, you can refer to the following:
They re basically just Apple s term for closures/anonymous functions. As Nikolai notes, they re how you use Grand Central Dispatch to run multiple functions in parallel (thus using more than 1 core) without having to worry about threading and locking.
As far as I understand this extension is for Apple s Grand Central Dispatch framework. Blocks are tiny schedulable/queue-able entities to be potentially run in parallel.
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