A colleague of mine was reading a C++ book and pointed out this quote to me. My apologies if it's been mentioned here before: Compilers are supposed to translate C++ into an executable format, not act as your personal safety net. You want that kind of safety? Program in Ada. -- Scott Meyers, Effective C++, Second Edition: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs. Addison Wesley, 1998, p. 224 My colleague's best guess is that this genuinely WAS meant as a compliment to Ada, i.e., that despite the author's description of what a compiler is "supposed to" do, he really does value the safety net that strong compile-time checks provide. -- Norman Cohen