Re: Cross platform C++ base library?

Hi David,

as a result of a web search, I found a class similar to CString, but whose
implementation is done using STL. This way, you should have both the
cross-platform feature (because the class is built on top of STL), and the
CString-like public interface:

  CString-like Class Using STL
  http://www.developer.com/net/cplus/article.php/627611

(I seem to recall that in the past I read something similar of that on
CodeProject, but I'm not sure...)

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of "simplified" versions of std::vector,
std::map and tr1::shared_ptr.

My first reaction to STL was that of a disagreement (starting from the
naming convention; in fact, I prefer camelCasing or PascalCasing to
c_linux_hacker_casing :)

Moreover, I really don't like std::map having 'first' and 'second'; I
would much more prefer 'Key' and 'Value' (like in C# BCL Dictionary
container) as naming choice!

However, I learnt the basics of STL containers like vector and map, and
now I'm glad to use these STL containers (excluding the naming
conventions).
For example, I like the non-linear factor (1.5X) policy of vector capacity
growing (instead I think that MFC's CArray implements the poor arithmetic
growing factor).

But I'm not an STL guru, e.g. I've not learnt to use STL allocators, yet.

However, I believe that you are a bright programmer and you can master STL
as well! :)

If you really don't like STL, you could just use STL as the core to
implement classes with an MFC-like interface (e.g. a David::CArray,
David::CList, etc. based on std::vector, std::list, etc.). So, you can
continue using the MFC-like interfaces, and you also have cross-platform
thanks to STL implementation "under the hood".
(In this case, you just need to program the STL containers only once, when
you write the *implementation* of your custom classes like David::CArray,
then you forget about STL, and you use the usual MFC-like public
interfaces of your custom classes.)

My 2 cents,
Giovanni