I guess "discipline" is something we're lucky to have a lot of. 99% of usage questions are answered by looking at existing code -- just stay consistent unless

I guess "discipline" is something we're lucky to have a lot of. 99% of usage questions are answered by looking at existing code -- just stay consistent unless there's a really good reason to depart. There are a bunch of things that would get you lynched in our group, but we rarely have to lynch anybody. There's a lot of mutual respect and a lot of respect for the existing coding style, especially among programmers who have done C++ programming elsewhere and suffered through unsafe and unscalable practices. I think most good C++ programmers spend years coming up to speed. I know I spent many hours coding for fun in college and read through TC++PL a couple of times (also for fun) before I started programming in C++ professionally. It was a wise investment, no doubt about it. It's an open question whether it would be a wise investment today, though.