Final answer:
The discussed rule advises against the use of const cast and reinterpret cast in programming due to their ability to break type safety and cause undefined behavior. These casts should only be used for unavoidable cases like legacy code integration or low-level operations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The rule stating to avoid const casts and reinterpret casts pertains to the practice of type conversion in programming languages such as C and C++. These casts are powerful but potentially dangerous tools that can lead to undefined behavior if not used carefully.
Const cast is used to cast away the constness of variables, allowing a const variable to be modified, which could lead to unpredictable results, especially if the original variable is indeed constant and resides in read-only memory. Reinterpret cast, on the other hand, is used to reinterpret the bit pattern of the object it is casted. This can be useful for low-level operations, such as interfacing with hardware, but can also cause portability and maintenance issues.
The rule stresses caution because these casts can break the type safety provided by the language, leading to hard-to-find bugs. The general advice is to use these casts sparingly and only when there is no alternative, such as in interfacing with legacy code or performing certain low-level operations.