ISO C++ Standards Committee (WG21)

Stories

National bodies reject C++26 draft in first failed ballot

Meets in Búzios, Brazil, November 16-21 to decide its response to the failed ballot

National bodies rejected the C++26 draft in its ISO ballot, the first failed ballot in the standard's history. Twelve of 20 counted votes from participating members were in favor, short of the two-thirds needed, and nine of 22 member bodies voted no, past the 25 percent cap.

Updated Oct 27

C++26 makes trivial infinite loops well-defined

Rule Changes

As of September 2026: Adopted the P2809R3 change in March 2024

A compiler could legally delete `while (true);` from your C++ program, and Clang actually did: execution fell through into whatever code the linker placed next, producing a demo that printed "Hello world!" after `main` supposedly never ended. That was allowed because trivial infinite loops were undefined behavior since C++11. C++26 makes them well-defined.

Updated Sep 18