Annex C (informative) Compatibility [diff]

Change: It is now invalid to jump past a declaration with explicit or implicit initializer (except across entire block not entered).

Rationale: Constructors used in initializers may allocate resources which need to be de-allocated upon leaving the block.

Allowing jump past initializers would require complicated runtime determination of allocation.

Furthermore, any use of the uninitialized object could be a disaster.

With this simple compile-time rule, C++ assures that if an initialized variable is in scope, then it has assuredly been initialized.

Effect on original feature: Deletion of semantically well-defined feature.

Difficulty of converting: Semantic transformation.

How widely used: Seldom.

Change: It is now invalid to return (explicitly or implicitly) from a function which is declared to return a value without actually returning a value.

Rationale: The caller and callee may assume fairly elaborate return-value mechanisms for the return of class objects.

If some flow paths execute a return without specifying any value, the implementation must embody many more complications.

Besides, promising to return a value of a given type, and then not returning such a value, has always been recognized to be a questionable practice, tolerated only because very-old C had no distinction between void functions and int functions.

Effect on original feature: Deletion of semantically well-defined feature.

Difficulty of converting: Semantic transformation.

Add an appropriate return value to the source code, such as zero.

How widely used: Seldom.

For several years, many existing C implementations have produced warnings in this case.