The Committee says these things do not exist. The Committee says these things are invisible, not our business, and not something we can or should talk about.

They lie.

The standard is haunted. I know it is. Especially by that Three Letter Demon. I never really talked about how it has plagued me — plagued us all — with its insidious presence. Always the looming and lurking danger of The Demon, fearing the rearing its ugly head. While lamenting its existence I could never face it head on to challenge it. It is only at the height of my isolation that I could no longer bear witness to the violence the Three Letter Demon did to our beloved programming community and, thusly, began to scheme to take it down. But before we challenge it, dear reader, it stands to reason: what exactly is the Three Letter Demon? And why does The Demon matter to C and C++?