My other CppCon talk video is now available: The Joy of C++26 Contracts (and Some Myth-Conceptions)

I usually only give one new talk a year, but this year I volunteered to give a second new talk at CppCon on a topic I haven’t spoken on before: draft C++26 contracts.

Thank you to all the experts, including the actual implementers and people who are for and against having contracts in C++26, for their time answering questions and providing papers and examples! I’ve done by best to represent the current status as I understand it, including all major positive must-knows and all major outstanding concerns and objections; any remaining errors are mine, not theirs.

I hope you find it useful!

Here is a copy of the talk abstract…

This talk is all about the C++26 contracts feature. It covers the following topics:

Why defensive programming is a Good Thing (mainly for functional safety, but occasionally also for memory safety)Brief overview of C++26 contracts, and why they’re way better than C assert (spoiler: writing them on declarations, being able to use them in release builds, and language support is just way better than macros)The 3-page “Effective C++ Contracts book” — best practices you need to know to use them (spoiler: keep compound conditions together, don’t write side effects, understand the pros and cons of installing a throwing violation handler… that’s pretty much… it?)Why they’re viable, because they address the key things we need in production (which we’ll list)Why they’re minimal, because we actually need every part in C++26 to use them at scale (which we’ll do by systematically summarizing why each piece is necessary)What the future evolution of contracts holds (spoiler: virtual functions! groups/labels!)A review of Frequently Asked Questions