C++26 Draft Rejected in National Body Ballot

Balloting on the draft C++26 international standard has ended with its rejection. The news came from standards committee member Robert Seacord. For the language this is being called an unprecedented situation: according to commenters, every previous edition of the standard passed unanimously.

The numbers

Among P-members (voting member countries), 12 of 20 backed the draft — 60 %, against a required threshold of at least 66.66 %. Abstaining P-members are not counted in this tally.

On the national body side, 9 negative votes were cast out of 22 — 41 %, where no more than 25 % is permitted. Both thresholds were therefore missed.

What lies behind the rejection

Seacord called it a sad day for the C++ community and voiced hope that things could move forward productively. The discussion, however, surfaced sharply differing views.

One commenter noted that a further 12 countries abstained — in several cases because their national delegations could not agree on a common position. He read this as another sign of just how contested the draft was.

Another participant saw the rejection instead as a mark of a healthy and competent community at the national body level. In his telling, the entire C++26 standard had been put at risk to push through a controversial and, in his view, deeply flawed proposal on contracts — and he welcomed the fact that national bodies caught the problem in time.

Comments also raised the idea that the outcome stemmed from a mix of technical and social disagreements, and that WG21's practice of voting by the "experts in the room" may need to be reconsidered. The path forward that participants discussed is to trim the contested scope and put the draft to a vote again.

Source: Lobsters