On Sun, Feb 1, 2026 at 6:45 PM Frederick Virchanza Gotham via
Std-Proposals <std-proposals_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Feb 1, 2026 at 7:40 PM Sebastian Wittmeier wrote:
> >
> > So the actual string cannot be used as long as the substr is used?
> >
> > That is dangerous and unexpected.
>
>
> I worked with a guy one time who was really melodramatic and used the
> word 'dangerous' a lot when talking about C++ code.
>
> If we're working on programming the microcontroller inside a
> life-support machine ventilator, or the detonator for a missile, or
> the thingie that keeps oxygen inside a submarine, then yeah sure we
> can use the word 'danger' as there's the actual risk of life and limb.
>
> But in this context where we're playing with strings, I'm downgrading
> your 'dangerous' to 'a little worrisome'.
>
> The following GodBolt shows what I had in mind:

I don't know why you think linking to a piece of code is useful here.
We understand what your code is doing. The problem is that what your
code is doing is bad. Re-explaining what your code is doing by pasting
a bunch of it doesn't stop it from being bad.

The question of whether `substr` should be a `const` function is a
"yes/no" question. One of those answers is correct. Your code uses the
other answer.