Digging around, OK that makes sense. But even in the context of C and C++, there are often more ways the compiler can't help you than ways it can.

The most common are on function calls involving array operations and pointers, but a lot of it has to do with the C/C++ header and linker setup as well. C and C++ authors should not blithely assume the compiler is doing an awesome job, and in my experience, they don't.