Standard
C++ not only incorporates all the Standard C libraries, with small additions
and changes to support type safety, it also adds libraries of its own. These
libraries are far more powerful than those in Standard C; the leverage you get
from them is analogous to the leverage you get from changing from C to C++.
This
section of the book gives you an in-depth introduction to the most important
portions of the Standard C++ library.
The
most complete and also the most obscure reference to the full libraries is the
Standard itself. Somewhat more readable (and yet still a self-described
“expert’s guide”) is Bjarne Stroustrup’s 3
rd
Edition of
The
C++ Programming Language
(Addison-Wesley, 1997). Another valuable reference is the 3
rd
edition of
C++
Primer
,
by Lippman & Lajoie.
The
goal of the chapters in this book that cover the libraries is to provide you
with an encyclopedia of descriptions and examples so you’ll have a good
starting point for solving any problem that requires the use of the Standard
libraries. However, there are some techniques and topics that are used rarely
enough that they are not covered here, so if you can’t find it in these
chapters you should reach for the other two books; this book is not intended to
replace those but rather to complement them. In particular, I hope that after
going through the material in the following chapters you’ll have a much
easier time understanding those books.
You
will notice that this section does not contain exhaustive documentation
describing every function and class in the Standard C++ library. I’ve
left the full descriptions to others; in particular there a particularly good
on-line sources of standard library documentation in HTML format that you can
keep resident on your computer and view with a Web browser whenever you need to
look something up. This is PJ Plauger’s Dinkumware C/C++ Library
reference at http://www.dinkumware.com. You can view this on-line, and purchase
it for local viewing. It contains complete reference pages for the both the C
and C++ libraries (so it’s good to use for all your Standard C/C++
programming questions). I am particularly fond of electronic documentation not
only because you can always have it with you, but also because you can do an
electronic search for what you’re seeking.
When
you’re actively programming, these resources should adequately satisfy
your reference needs (and you can use them to look up anything in this chapter
that isn’t clear to you). Appendix XX lists additional references.