[roel_v]

You're arguing a straw man here. bcoates is saying, and I agree, that the usual examples being given on how horrible C++ is, are not idiomatic C++ and are used only by people who don't have any experience using C++. Of course it's easy to come up with examples of when things might go wrong. C++ is a powerful language, and with great power comes great responsibility, pardon the pompousness of that phrasing. C++ isn't perfect by a long shot, but the reasons brought forth in the OP and most of this discussion are not examples of real problems.

[zxcdw]

Many times it's the human error which causes the bug/vulnerability to happen rather than sheer ignorance/lack of experience. In such cases a tool which prevents this from happening in the first place is superior to one which doesn't have such a safety feature in it.

For the same reason we can't ever completely prevent traffic accidents by requiring higher skilled drivers. We can prevent traffic accidents by building cars, lanes, junctions and roads in such way which minimizes the damage caused by a human error.

I'll rather use a hammer which refuses to strike to my finger even if I try to make it to, rather than one which I can smash my fingers with by accident. I am sure you would too.

[roel_v]

Sure, and that's why I e.g. prefer strong typing for bigger systems. The examples that have been used so far just aren't good examples of what is wrong with C++, which is what the point was about. At some point, there is a trade off between safety and power, and one that makes C++ quite well, IMO.