🚀 go-pugleaf

r2d2@austin.ibm.com wrote:
> Can anyone recommend an STL user's guide?  What's available in
>the standard, and in "The Standard Template Library" by 
>Alexander Stepanov and Meng Lee, isn't really user information.
>I've seen some helpful user info on the WWW, but I really want a book.
>STL's been out a year, you would think there would be a user's
>guide available by now.

I'm currently writing a book called "Using and Extending STL"
to be published by Prentice Hall, but you'll have to wait
a bit longer for it on paper. (I'm collecting both reviewers
and contributions though)

I'm told Mark Nelson has a book available now, see his home page

  http://www.airmail.net/~markn

for details -- I've not seen or read it.

I'm aware of at least one other book in preparation for
Prentice Hall (guess the author) and I'd suppose in a few
months there will be a veritable host of them.

One of the problems writing a book on STL is that
it places very high demands on compilers -- there
are NONE that I'm aware of that can run STL yet.
(Or even really come close)

Furthermore, the ISO C++ Standard is not yet in
place so the ISO C++ STL component is not yet well
specified ... which makes writing a book harder.

Books on C++ may be small, but books on the
full C++ system including STL are likely to be
bigger -- more work to write and more need not
to have to rewrite them 6 months later
when the WP changes or a new version of a compiler
comes out.

[The HP implementation of STL is NOT a conforming
STL implementation, just the best that it's authors
could do with the available compilers. 
It's an STL _precursor_. So STL
hasn't, as claimed, "been out for a year now",
in fact, it isn't out at all yet]

-- 
John Max Skaller               voice: 61-2-566-2189
81 Glebe Point Rd              fax:   61-2-660-0850
GLEBE NSW 2037                 email: maxtal@suphys.physics.oz.au
AUSTRALIA                      email: skaller@maxtal.com.au




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