Source: The Register
The ISO C++ committee’s decision to include Contracts in C++26—against the objections of C++’s own inventor Bjarne Stroustrup—reveals a structural conflict in how standardization bodies govern languages used across billions of devices and critical infrastructure. Stroustrup’s argument that Contracts are neither minimal nor viable wasn’t merely a technical quibble but a philosophical objection to feature creep in a language whose design authority has historically been the arbiter of such tradeoffs. The approval shows that committee-driven governance is now overruling founder veto power, a precedent that changes how C++ evolves and, more broadly, how open standards bodies negotiate control between visionary stewardship and democratic process.