Comment by jcmoyer
18 hours ago
There is a really convincing set of arguments against this idea by Robert Seacord[1]. I used to be in the signed size camp, but I've come around to preferring unsigned as much as possible because it's much easier to reason about. I think there are far more footguns than people realize when it comes to signed integers.
The only real benefits to unsigned math are that overflow is generally defined as a simple wrap (odometer), and it doubles the range. Relying on that doubled range for bounds is flirting with disaster, though.
The downside is a pervasive, constant footgun every time you are dealing with indices.