It is utterly foundational to modern C++. You could not leave it out and even make sense.

It foundational to C++, period. Even in Turbo C++ 1.0 for MS-DOS released in 1992 or thereabouts.

The fact that many still think it only came with C++11 or whatever "modern C++" is where the problem lies.

Even in Zortech C++'s 1987 release!

Thanks for the heads up.

Borland and Microsoft ruled the compilers party in the Iberian Penisula during those days. :)

It is the foundation of C++. Even in pre-modern destructors were the heart even if we didn't use them as much as we do now with modern C++.

We have always relied on destructors fully as much as we do now. What is new is that we hardly ever need to write one, anymore, or even to declare one. That is a consequence of a more mature standard library.

I wonder now whether Ada auto-generates destructors for types with a member that defines one. And whether its standard library is such as to make a need to code them yourself vanishingly rare.