Add recommendation: By default, declare single-argument constructors `explicit`

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/developer-notes.md b/doc/developer-notes.md
index ad15aa662e..2f04d6ee6c 100644
--- a/doc/developer-notes.md
+++ b/doc/developer-notes.md
@@ -332,6 +332,12 @@ C++ data structures
   - *Rationale*: Ensure determinism by avoiding accidental use of uninitialized
     values. Also, static analyzers balk about this.
 
+- By default, declare single-argument constructors `explicit`.
+
+  - *Rationale*: This is a precaution to avoid unintended conversions that might
+    arise when single-argument constructors are used as implicit conversion
+    functions.
+
 - Use explicitly signed or unsigned `char`s, or even better `uint8_t` and
   `int8_t`. Do not use bare `char` unless it is to pass to a third-party API.
   This type can be signed or unsigned depending on the architecture, which can