[simias]

I meant that basic C++ seems rather straightforward and at first doesn't appear to introduce too many new footguns over the C subset. Actually thanks to vectors and RAII it can remove whole classes of classic C mistakes.

It's only when you start to have all these elements work (or not work) together that you realize that it's not as simple as it first seemed and the various side effects, overloadings and implied constraints sprinkled throughout the code turned it into a virtual minefield.

Case in point, this video I've watched the past week: https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/C-and-Beyond-2012-Herb-Sutte...

It's a very interesting talk (and probably worth a watch if you're a C++ developer) but the amusing thing to me is that he begins by showing two short pieces of rather simple C++ code and asks the audience if they are UB or not. Seems like nobody can (or want to) answer that question.

Spoiler: the conclusion of the talk is that one of these pieces of code is only legal if the copy constructor of the custom type adheres to certain implied constraints that are not enforced by the compiler and, it seems, few people are aware of.