Legacy code

Refactoring legacy C++ code is a significant undertaking that has the potential to breathe new life into an aging code base. Often, legacy code is written in old dialects of C++, such as C++98 or C++03, which do not take advantage of the new language features and standard library improvements introduced in C++11, C++14, C++17, and C++20.

One common area for modernization is memory management. Legacy C++ code often uses raw pointers for managing dynamic memory, leading to potential issues with memory leaks and null pointer dereferencing. Such code can be refactored to use smart pointers, such as std::unique_ptr and std::shared_ptr, which automatically manage the lifetime of the objects they point to, reducing the risk of memory leaks.

Another modernization opportunity lies in adopting the range-based for loops introduced in C++11. Older loops with explicit iterators or index variables can be replaced with cleaner and more intuitive range-based loops. This not only...