How we used C++20 to eliminate an entire class of runtime bugs - C++ Team Blog
C++20 is here and has been supported in MSVC since 16.11, but today’s post is not about how you can use it, but rather how we used it to effectively eliminate an entire class of runtime bugs by hoisting a check into compile-time.
Hasnain says:
This is a cool c++20 trick.
“In total we identified ~120 instances where we were either passing the incorrect number of arguments to a diagnostic API or where we passed the wrong type for a particular format-specifier. Over the years we have received bugs regarding strange compiler behavior when emitting a diagnostic or a straight-up ICE (Internal Compiler Error) because the format-specifiers were looking for arguments which were incorrect or did not exist. Using C++20 we have largely eliminated possibility of such bugs happening in the future and while offering the ability for us to safely refactor diagnostic messages, made possible by one little keyword: consteval.”
Posted on 2022-01-15T06:06:32+0000