[jandrewrogers]

This kind of assumes old and naive C++. There was a lot of that 20 years ago but a lot of that was replaced by languages with garbage collectors. New C++ applications today tend to be geared toward extreme performance/scale. The idioms are far beyond thinking much about anything you mention.

People seriously underestimate how capable and expressive modern C++ metaprogramming facilities are. Most don’t bother to learn it but it is one of the most powerful features of the language when it comes to both performance and safety. The absence of it is very noticeable when I use other systems languages. I’m not a huge fan of C++ but that is a killer feature.

[ykonstant]

OK, but what is this wonderful subset of C++ that is geared towards extreme performance without sacrificing safety, and has expressive metaprogramming facilities that to do not tank compilation and run times?

Not a rhetorical question, I'd love to see a book or notes that carves out precisely that subset so those of us who want to learn can avoid the tons upon tons of outdated or misleading documentation!