This article covers a possible mechanism that would allow the C++ committee to make breaking changes to the language syntax while still fully preserving backwards compatibility. This would allow dangerous or obsolete constructs to be removed from C++, increasing safety and approachability of the language.

fixing c++ with epochs

by Vittorio Romeo

From the article:

Imagine that you have been designing a programming language for over 30 years and that it gradually became widely used across the globe. Some of the decisions you made at the beginning were excellent and contributed to the success of your project. Some others, however, were not the best: over the years you and your users realized that the world would have been a better place if those choices you made eons ago were slightly different. [...]

What if I told you that I could fix all of your problems? Even better, what if I told you that backward-compatibility will never be broken and that migration to newer versions of your language could be automated?