Trust your compiler: Modern C++
Modern C++ compilers perform extensive optimizations at high warning levels, often generating more efficient code than hand-written assembly. The article argues that developers should trust compiler optimizations, rely on the type system, and avoid premature optimization, using examples like copy elision, constexpr, and auto-vectorization to demonstrate modern compiler capabilities.
Background
This article targets developers with experience in older C++ standards (C++98/03) who may be unaware of how much the language has evolved. Modern C++ (C++11 and later) introduced major features — move semantics, `auto`, smart pointers (`unique_ptr`, `shared_ptr`), lambdas, `constexpr`, and the STL algorithms — that let the compiler catch bugs at compile time that previously required manual runtime checks or raw-pointer discipline. The title "trust your compiler" is a shorthand for relying on these static guarantees instead of micromanaging memory and types by hand.