c++ - pop_back() return value?

Question

Why doesn't pop_back() have a return value? I have Googled regarding this and found out that it makes it more efficient. Is this the only reason for making it so in the standard?

Answer 1

Efficiency has little (or nothing, really) to do with it.

This design is the outcome of an important paper by Tom Cargill, published in the 90s, that raised quite a few eyebrows back then. IIRC, in it Cargill showed that it is impossible to design an exception safe stack pop function.