Calling delete on NULL pointers - C++03 vs C++11

Question

In the C++03 Standard, I see:

5.3.5 Delete

2 If the operand has a class type, the operand is converted to a pointer type by calli

Answer 1

The latest C++14 draft (N3797) has roughly equivalent wording in this section. But the behaviour is equally-strongly specified, just not in quite the same paragraph.

If the value of the operand of the delete-expression is not a null pointer value, the delete-expression will invoke the destructor (if any) for the object or the elements of the array being deleted. In the case of an array, the elements will be destroyed in order of decreasing address (that is, in reverse order of the completion of their constructor; see 12.6.2 ).

If the value of the operand of the delete-expression is not a null pointer value, then: — If the allocation call for the new-expression for the object to be deleted was not omitted ( 5.3.4 ), the delete-expression shall call a deallocation function ( 3.7.4.2 ). The value returned from the allocation call of the new-expression shall be passed as the first argument to the deallocation function. — Otherwise, the delete-expression will not call a deallocation function ( 3.7.4.2 ).

These paragraphs are clearly just as strong as C++03. The Committee could not have broken the behaviour of programs which delete null pointers, as these are widespread and the cost of fixing would be much too large. It would have made C++11 unimplementable.