I agree with the sentiment but in practice I’ve found that most C++ STL exceptions throw in a “fatal error” type of scenario like a bad allocation and generally not an “expected error”. For example, basic_ifstream::open() sets a fail bit on error, and doesn’t throw an exception.

This is in contrast to python or Swift for example, their standard libraries are more “throw-prone”. Building off the previous example Swift’s String.init(contentsOf:encoding:) throws on error on failure.

So in practice, IMO it is usually safe to disable exceptions in C++. Though, I have run into tricky ABI breaks when you link multiple libraries in a chain of exceptions->noexcept->exceptions and so on! You’re of course at the mercy of nonstandard behavior so buyer-beware. I definitely wouldn’t advocate for turning them off -just- for a binary size reduction.