>Of course C++ doesn't have that, it will be perfectly happy to write over the bios if it runs out of memory.

This is not really true... If it will write or not over the bios (or any memory that it's not owned by the app) depends on the OS and C++ implementation.

Today, no serious C++ compiler will generate code that does that. As for recursion, in C++, the limit is set by the stack memory (and, of course, the heap, if the function allocates memory internally). In VC++, both will generate an exception and it will not write where not allowed.

Vlad