At both of my jobs, I am working way too much, I am working in pre-C++11 codebases which now allow C++11. Both are working to for -Werror everywhere and that helps a huge amount, and we can try to get more warning listed and make broad but subtle changes to the codebases.

At one place we are in a race before a tight deadline and at the other we are breaking a large monolith into smaller packages. At one place we implement a new practice for all our code, and at the other we implement all our best practices as we chop code out of the monolith. Both places are seeing a reduction in bugs. The place with the packages is probably reaping a larger benefit because they are aggressively re-working old code and have better test coverage and can do so with confidence.

Code bases do grow organically, but like places they can be tended and pruned to make impressive orchards or topiaries or left to the wild to become impassible jungles. Tools like RAII, exceptions, classes, etc... are just tools for managing this.

I think the tools in C++11/14 are at least as powerful as in any language except perhaps Rust. Every time I hear a C developer say "C can be just as safe..." I am imagine a person with nothing but a pocket-knife trying to manage a whole forest.

Thanks for the overview.