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C++26 ISO draft fails DIS ballot, first such miss for the language
Train IT's Mateusz Pusz said the C++26 DIS missed both ISO vote thresholds after a ballot that closed Oct. 23, with nine national bodies voting no, according to figures posted by C committee convenor Robert Seacord.
- New headline Was: “The result of the C++26 DIS ballot”
- Our desk filed its story
- train-it.eu is now reporting this
The draft of C++26 failed its ISO Draft International Standard ballot, missing both required vote tests, according to a Train IT blog post by Mateusz Pusz that cites figures posted by C committee convenor Robert Seacord1.
Pusz said the ballot closed on Oct. 23, 2026, with 12 of 20 participating (P-)members voting in favor, or 60 percent, below the two-thirds required, and 9 of 22 votes against, or 41 percent, above the 25 percent cap on negative votes1.
He wrote that no earlier C++ draft had failed a DIS, citing Seacord's view that no SC22 language standard had failed such a ballot and a remark by WG21 Direction Group member Daveed Vandevoorde that no prior C++ draft drew even one vote against1.
Features in the unapproved draft include reflection, std::execution, library hardening, and contracts, Pusz said1. The current published language remains ISO/IEC 14882:2024 (C++23) until a new edition is issued1.
Nine national bodies voted no: Denmark, Finland, Iran, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, and Sweden, each with comments, according to the post1. France and Ireland abstained but sent comments; Poland and the United States abstained1. Pusz, a member of Poland's national body, said Poland's technical committee did not pass a motion to reject the DIS1.
The full comments are not yet public1. ISO/IEC Directives require a report within 12 weeks of the vote's end, which Pusz said would be mid-January 2027 at the latest for a ballot that closed Oct. 231.
Pusz said he is convinced the no votes were about contracts, pointing to Croydon plenary objections, earlier national-body comments, and paper P4238R1, while noting that will be confirmed only when comments are published1.
After a failed DIS, ISO can circulate a revised enquiry draft, a revised committee draft, a draft technical specification, or cancel the project, he wrote1. WG21 meets in Búzios, Brazil, from Nov. 16 to 21, 20261. Paper P4433R0 seeks another ballot without removing contracts; Garcia, an author of P4238R1, and Vandevoorde have argued for removing contracts so the rest of the draft can proceed, according to Pusz1.
Compiler flags such as GCC 16's -std=c++26 are unaffected by the ballot, he said, though experimental implementations may not match a future published standard1.
