C++ founder champions profiles for memory safety

C++ memory safety issues have come under heat recently, with rising interest in projects like TrapC and Safe C++ that attempt to tackle the issue. But C++ designer Bjarne Stroustrup remains steadfast in promoting profiles as essential for safety in C++.

Profiles can offer guarantees for imposing restrictions on existing features. In a February 7 note to ISO (International Organization for Standardization) C++ committee members, Stroustrup emphasized the benefits of profiles, noting that C++ type safety and resource safety, including memory safety, were aims of C++ from the very start.

“The sky isn’t falling, but unless we act now and get C++ onto a track supporting a flexible framework of profiles (supporting various forms of safety), we risk a painful decline,” said Stroustrup, who founded C++ in 1979. According to Stroustrup, profiles are essential to the language’s future, will not break existing code, and will not prevent a favorite new feature. They also are part of a long tradition of C++ evolution. He advised support for initial profiles in C++ 26, and warned against incompatible, ad hoc restrictions as the alternative.

“This is clearly not a traditional technical note proposing a new language or library feature,” Stroustrup said. “It is a call to urgent action partly in response to unprecedented, serious attacks on C++.” The language is under attack from the US and European Union regulatory bodies, Stroustrup stressed. The US White House in February 2024 called for moving away from languages with memory safety issues, C++ and C in particular.

Stroustrup previously has promoted profiles in response to concerns about memory safety. Demands for memory safety are not unreasonable, he said. “Profiles provide a unifying framework that allows the C++ community to address safety challenges without compromising C++’s core strengths,” Stroustrup said.

Other efforts have arisen lately to address memory safety concerns in C++ and C. TrapC is a fork of the C language serving as an extension compiler to fix C/C++ memory safety. Safe C++ promises to be a rigorously safe subset of C++.