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I just read the C++ Primer because I wanted to hack on some C++ code and the number of things you can do in C or C++ that result in "undefined behavior" is anno

I just read the C++ Primer because I wanted to hack on some C++ code and the number of things you can do in C or C++ that result in "undefined behavior" is annoyingly large. There are some functions where they could have added a bounds check to the implementation, but the whole philosophy of the language seems to be that when choosing between lack of bult-in checks that would lead to easy to make errors that would cause undefined behavior and small speed increases on microbenchmarks the language designers choose the latter.

maxlybbert 9y ago
For what it's worth, in Design and Evolution of C++, Stroustrup says that when he was designing features, he would often think of a simple rule that he couldn't enforce (e.g., "couldn't enforce" being "if you violate this rule, the results are undefined") and a complex rule that he could enforce. He generally tried to pick the simpler, easier to teach rule. Unfortunately, that means there's more undefined behavior if those simpler rules are violated.