[boost] Re: Boost header guidelines

From: Steinar Bang (sb_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-10-07 04:13:21

>>>>> "Ed Brey" <brey_at_[hidden]>:

> The dinkumware library that ships with VC6 suffers from two
> problems: lack of compiler support and age.  For the former, as you
> stated, switching to STLPort won't make much difference.  However,
> STLPort does provide a library that is based on the C++ standard,
> rather than a draft.  This makes a big difference, for instance, if
> you want to use std::auto_ptr (yes, it is still useful, even in the
> presence of the boost smart pointers).

In addition to being based on the draft standard, the library shipped
with VC6 (and VC5 for that matter), has eg.:
        http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/stl/FAQ.HTM#Q4

Fixes to the above bug, and many others can be found at
        http://www.dinkumware.com/vc_fixes.html

But even with these fixes there is a problem in that some templates
are instantiated in the buggy version in the runtime DLL, and that
even with the patched header the buggy versions will be used (this is
the case of eg. string).