The C++ language has evolved over the years through the work of the C++ standards committee, which is responsible for defining the language and its standard library. The committee is made up of language experts and library developers from various companies and organizations, who meet regularly to discuss proposals for new features and improvements to the language.
The process for proposing a new language feature or library addition involves submitting a proposal to the committee, which is then reviewed and discussed by members of the committee and the wider C++ community. The proposal is evaluated based on factors such as its usefulness, feasibility, compatibility with existing code, and potential impact on performance and code complexity.
If a proposal is accepted, it is typically included in a future version of the C++ standard. The standard is published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and is updated every few years. The most recent version of the standard at the time of writing is C++20, which was published in 2020.
The C++ standards committee aims to strike a balance between adding new features to the language to improve its expressiveness and power, and maintaining backward compatibility with existing code. This can be a challenging task, as new language features and library additions can introduce new complexity and make it harder to write efficient and maintainable code.
To address these challenges, the committee has established a set of guiding principles for C++ development, including:
Simplicity: C++ should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Consistency: C++ should have a consistent set of rules and idioms.
Compatibility: C++ should be compatible with existing C code and C++ code.
Performance: C++ should be fast and efficient.
Safety: C++ should be safe, with well-defined behavior in all cases.
By following these principles, the C++ standards committee aims to ensure that the language remains a powerful and efficient tool for software development, while also being easy to use and maintain.