What has the standard committee ever done for us?

Disclaimer

Should go without saying but… this post is a pamphlet. It’s only intended to make you smile.

Every time I see people complaining on social media about the C++ standard committee not doing this or that I remember the famous scene from the movie Live of Brian when the Jews debate the benefits of the Roman occupation. However, put into the C++ world, the scene would be as follows:

REG: They’ve bled us white, the bastards. They’ve taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers’ fathers.

LORETTA: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers.

REG: Yeah.

LORETTA: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers’ fathers.

REG: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don’t labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!

XERXES: Modules?

REG: What?

XERXES: Modules.

REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that’s true. Yeah.

COMMANDO #3: And concepts.

LORETTA: Oh, yeah, concepts, Reg. Remember what the templates used to be like?

REG: Yeah. All right. I’ll grant you, modules and concepts are two things that the standard committee has done.

MATTHIAS: And lambda expressions.

REG: Well, yeah. Obviously lambda expressions. I mean, lambda expressions go without saying, don’t they? But apart from modules, concepts, and lambda expressions–

COMMANDO: Variadic templates.

XERXES: Ranges.

COMMANDOS: Huh? Heh? Huh…

COMMANDO #2: And move semantics.

COMMANDOS: Ohh…

REG: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.

COMMANDO #1: constexpr.

COMMANDOS: Oh, yes. Yeah…

FRANCIS: Yeah. Yeah, that’s something we’d really miss, Reg, if the standard committee left. Huh.

COMMANDO: Type inference.

LORETTA: And it’s safe to use pointers now, Reg.

FRANCIS: Yeah.

COMMANDOS: Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.

REG: All right, but apart from modules, concepts, lambda expressions, variadic templates, move semantics, type inference, constexpr, and smart pointers what has the standard committee ever done for us?

XERXES: Brought uniform initialization.

REG: Oh. initialization? Shut up!

If you’re not familiar with the scene, here is the original: