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by Yoric 2674 days ago
I've heard these "idiomatic C++" and "improved data structures" arguments a few times and as a C++ developer, I'm a bit skeptical. Does anybody know of any non-toy C++ projects that actually demonstrate such a high-level of reliable use of C++?

If so, how much do they rely on the developers being ideal programmers, who know intimately the intricacies of C++ and how to avoid ending up in UB-land?

1 comments

I have a codebase that amounts to several kLOC of C++, available here: https://git.sr.ht/~maelkum/viuavm While I openly admit that parts of it are shoddily written, I also try to always use the "reliable subset" of C++.

From my experience it is not hard to make it a habit (e.g. using `::at()` and declaring variables as `auto const x = ...;` is muscle memory at this point) but the code becomes very verbose and looks like programmed defensively to a sometimes ridiculous extent.

So I understand your skepticism. To address the point of relying on developers being "ideal": just turn the compiler warning flags up to eleven, make all warnings errors, and run your tests two times - one time with sanitisers, and the other under Valgrind. This won't catch all errors, sure, but will still make you more confident in your code's reliability.