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The Draft Standard C++ Library by P J Plauger Recommended with Reservations

ISBN: 0-13-117003-1       Publisher: Prentice Hall       Pages: 590pp       Price: £23-95

Categories:   reference     advanced c++

Reviewed by Chris Simons in C Vu 7-3 (Mar 1995)

bool is a built-in type, so functions returning int with boolean semantics (e.g. isspace) now return bool instead.

basic_string< > is a template for building strings, so that string and wstring become:

 typedef basic_string< char > string;
 typedef basic_string< wchar_t > wstring;

some smart pointer types have been added.

Perhaps the biggest omission from the book is the Standard Template Library (STL) which will almost certainly be part of any Standard C++ library.

This type of book will be a welcome addition to any C++ programmer's book shelf. Unfortunately, the author appears to have gone to print too soon. However, when the final Standard C++ Library appears and this book is updated, I will certainly acquire a copy.