alt Hacker News> Profiles, which would allow C++ code (or the majority of it) to become type-safe and memory safe.
Certainly safer, but not memory safe. Operations as simple as multiplying signed integers or popping an empty vec can be undefined behavior which is not memory safe.
For most domains, it is fine. Why should my valued checked code pay the price for checking every arithmetic operation for overflow. Why should my correctly implemented algorithm waste CPU checking something I know is valid? And worst of all, what happens when a logic error is encountered, we run untested code path? I hate code that is conditionally defensive (eg. if (ptr) ptr->critical(); ). I should never be in that situation, a silent ignore corrupts internal state, and never tested the fail path. Ptr may even refer to garbage. Its a stupid defebsive check in 90% of code bases. std::optional<Ptr> at least clarifies intent.