In Defense of C++

The complexity argument is just not true. You do have to know this stuff in c++, you run into it all the time.

I wish I didn’t have to know about std::launder but I do

I feel like C++ is a bunch of long chains of solutions creating problems that require new solutions, that start from claiming that it can do things better than C.

Problem 1: You might fail to initialize an object in memory correctly.

Solution 1: Constructors.

Problem 2: Now you cannot preallocate memory as in SLAB allocation since the constructor does an allocator call.

Solution 2: Placement new

Problem 3: Now the type system has led the compiler to assume your preallocated memory cannot change since you declared it const.

Solution 3: std::launder()

If it is not clear what I mean about placement new and const needing std::lauder(), see this:

https://miyuki.github.io/2016/10/21/std-launder.html

C has a very simple solution that avoids this chain. Use structured programming to initialize your objects correctly. You are not going to escape the need to do this with C++, but you are guaranteed to have to consider a great many things in C++ that would not have needed consideration in C since C avoided the slippery slope of syntactic sugar that C++ took.

But the c++ solution is transparent to the user. You can write entire useful programs that will use std:: containers willy-nilly and all propagate their allocators automatically and recursively without you having to lift a finger because all the steps you've mentioned have been turned in a reusable library, once.