The C++ core guidelines have about twenty naming and layout rules. A few of them are obvious; a few of them may be controversial. Let's see what I mean.

The lifetime safety profile in the C++ core guidelines boils down to one issue: don't dereference a possible invalid pointer. A pointer may be invalid because it is not initialized or the nullptr. A pointer may also point beyond its rage or to a deleted object.

Today's post concerns the second C++ Core Guidelines: Bounds Safety profile. The goal of the profile bounds safety is that you operate inside the bounds of allocated memory.

What does that mean: type safety by design. Type safety by design just means that you always initialize your variables, use std::variant instead of a union, or prefer variadic templates and fold expressions to va_arg's.

The C++ core guidelines support three profiles: type safety, bounds safety, and lifetime safety. Thanks to the guideline support library (GSL), you can check your code against these profiles. Today, I start with the profile type safety.

Informally, profiles are a subset of rules of the C++ core guidelines for specific concerns such as type safety, bounds safety, and lifetime safety. Thanks to the guideline support library, they can be checked

Today, I conclude my story to your myths about C++. These myths are around function parameters, the initialisation of class members, and pointer versus references.

I was inquisitive about your C++ myths. In particular, my German readers were quite active. I got a few E-Mails and observed a vivid discussion on Heise Developer.

Demystifying non-rules and myths in C++ is a laborious but essential job. The goal is simple: use the powerful tool C++ appropriately.

Of course, you already know many non-rules and myths about C++. Non-rules and myths which we have to argue against when we use modern C++. The supporting section of the C++ core guidelines addresses the most resistant ones but also provides alternatives.