Download PDF C++ Standard Library, The: A Tutorial and Reference by Nicolai M. Jusuttis

Sinopsis

The standardization of C++ was started in 1989 and finished at the end of 1997, although some formal motions delayed the final publication until September 1998. The result was a reference manual with approximately 750 pages, published by the International Standards Organization (ISO). The standard has the title "Information Technology — Programming Languages — C++." Its document number is ISO/IEC 14882-1998,and it is distributed by the national bodies of the ISO, such as the ANSI in the United States.

The standard was an important milestone for C++. Because it defines the exact contents and behavior of C++, it makes it easier to teach C++, to use C++ in applications, and to port C++ programs to different platforms. It also gives users greater freedom of choice regarding different C++ implementations. Its stability and portability help library providers and tool providers as well as implementers. Thus, the standard helps C++ application developers build better applications faster, and maintain them with less cost and effort.

Part of the standard is a standard library. This library provides core components for I/O, strings, containers (data structures), algorithms (such as sort, search, and merge), support for numeric computation, and (as could be expected from an international standard) support for internationalization (such as different character sets).

You may wonder why the standardization process took almost 10 years, and if you know some details about the standard you might wonder why after all this time it is still not perfect. Ten years, in fact, was not enough time! Although, according to the history and the context of the standardization process, a lot was accomplished. The result is usable in practice, but it is not perfect (nothing ever is).

The standard is not the result of a company with a big budget and a lot of time. Standards organizations pay nothing or almost nothing to the people who work on developing standards. So, if a participant doesn't work for a company that has a special interest in the standard, the work is done for fun. Thank goodness there were a lot of dedicated people who had the time and the money to do just that.

Content

1. About this Book
2. Introduction to C++ and the Standard Library
3. General Concepts
4. Utilities
5. The Standard Template Library
6. STL Containers
7. STL Iterators
8. STL Function Objects
9. STL Algorithms
10. Special Containers
11. Strings
12. Numerics
13. Input/Output Using Stream Classes
14. Internationalization
15. Allocators

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