Delivering Safe C++ - Bjarne Stroustrup - CppCon 2023

Type safety was one of the key initial C++ design ideals. We have evolved C++ to the point where we can write C++ with no violations of the type system, no resource leaks, no memory corruption, no garbage collector, no limitation of expressiveness or performance degradation compared to well‑written modern C++. We face three major challenges: to define what “safe” means in the context of various C++ uses, to guarantee such safety where guarantees are needed, and to get developers to write such verified safe code. I outline an approach based on safety profiles to address these challenges, describe an approach to eliminate dangling pointers, and suggest how to eliminate all dangling pointers and all range errors. My aim for key applications is verified type‑and‑resource‑safe C++. An emphasis is on minimizing costly run‑time checks through the use of abstractions. I see the current emphasis on safety as an opportunity to complete one aspect of C++’s fundamental aims in real‑world code.