Why I'm slowly becoming a fan

of C++ Contracts

Talk

By: Klaas van Gend
From: Sioux Technologies

Talk at Meetup 2026-10-29

Abstract

The first C++ contracts proposal dates back to 2004. Now, 22 years later, contracts have finally been merged into the working draft for C++26. Why did it take over two decades? Because the committee fiercely disagreed on both the purpose and the solution.

But the wait was worth it. C++26 finally delivers a mechanism that:

Can be checked during constant evaluation.
Runtime checking can be configured for different build profiles, from ignored to enforced.
Makes contracts explicit, machine-readable input for static-analysis tools and AI assistants.

In this talk, Klaas will dive into the core need for C++ Contracts, look at the problems they solve, and explain why he is slowly but surely starting to like them.

Biography

Klaas van Gend is a senior software architect for Sioux Technologies, an international provider of advanced solutions and software platforms. Sioux Technology is active in various global markets, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment, analytical equipment, and medical devices.

Over the years, Klaas and his teams have undertaken numerous large-scale software stack projects, each encompassing millions of lines of code. These projects, predominantly in C++, demonstrate Klaas's proficiency and experience in the field.

In addition to his role as software architect, Klaas teaches the 3-day Multicore Programming C++ course at the High Tech Institute.
Six hundred attendees from all over the world highly valued this training, which touches on all concurrency topics of Modern C++, improvements and limitations in modern hardware architectures, parallelization patterns, blockers, anti-patterns, SIMD, OpenMP, appropriate libraries, and many exercises.

Klaas is married to Andrea. They live in Best, The Netherlands.

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contact: organizers at 040coders.nl