P2000R5 — Directions for ISO C++ (12 items) All WG21
J. Garland, P. McKenney, R. Orr, B. Stroustrup, D. Vandevoorde, M. Wong
This paper articulates the long-term philosophy and operational principles guiding the evolution of C++, covering aims such as safety, simplicity, performance, and stability. It addresses process issues including proposal handling, trust within the committee, ABI stability, the role of technical specifications, and the balance of engineering tradeoffs. In R5, concrete short/medium-term priorities are moved to a separate paper (P5000), and new standalone directives on Profiles/Safety (P3970), AI strategy (P4023), and proposal convergence (P4024) are introduced and referenced.

References — Anthropic Citations API

[1]
"the current 500+ membership of the C++ Standards Committee exceeds the largest estimates of Dunbar's number, in contrast to the roughly 50 committee members back in 2025."
[2] chars 41259–41890
"Remember the need for trust (§6.1): ●​ “I didn’t have time to read the document” is not sufficient reason to oppose (provided the paper was submitted on time) ●​ “I don’t understand” is not by..."
[2] chars 41259–41890
"Remember the need for trust (§6.1): ●​ “I didn’t have time to read the document” is not sufficient reason to oppose (provided the paper was submitted on time) ●​ “I don’t understand” is not by..."
[3]
"the story of the Vasa, the beautiful 17th century battleship that sank on its maiden voyage because of (among other things) insufficient work on its foundation and excessive late additions..."
[4] chars 5263–5452
"We strongly recommend that someone who wants to push or oppose a proposal read [Stroustrup,1994] and its related HOPL papers ([Stroustrup,1993], [Stroustrup,2007], and [Stroustrup2020]). "
[5]
"[Stroustrup,2022] B. Stroustrup and G. Dos Reis: Design Alternatives for Type-and-Resource Safe C++. P????R0. 2022-10-15."
[6] chars 5029–5101
"Part of the reason for that Is that copies of D&E can be hard to find. "
[7]
"P4024R0: Guidance on Building Consensus and Converging Proposals. / added pointer to P4024r0:Guidance on Converging on unified proposals"
[8]
"P4023R0 (Strategic Directions for AI in C++: Governance and Ecosystem). / P4023R0: Strategic Direction for AI in C++"
[9] chars 72255–72335
"●​ [Wakely,2017] Jonathan Wakely: Extensions for Networking. N471. 2017-11-27. "
[10] chars 10627–10815
"Changing parts deemed insignificant can be risky (we need better analysis tools [Winter,2016]) 5 Directions for ISO C++​ DG​ P2000R5 and the potential gains would be insignificant. "
Summary: P2000R5 is a standing document that articulates the committee's long-term design goals, priorities, and process guidelines for the evolution of ISO C++. It covers historical context, overarching principles (type safety, performance, teachability), specific technical directions (e.g., static analysis, modules, concurrency), and procedural guidance for how proposals should be evaluated.
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