C++ approaches single standard Single C++ promises library compatibility, easier porting By George Lawton

September  1995

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C++ standardization may be close to reality thanks to the release of the ANSI committed draft (CD) Registration of the standard earlier this year. The committed draft means that the 750-page document will not change significantly from its current form. The standard is now out in a debugging mode, and is up for public review to identify any problems before the standard is completed. However, ANSI has committed to not making any major additions, enhancements or deletions.

Dan Whitaker, an executive vice president at Rogue Wave Software in Corvalis, Ore. said, "The major benefit is that you write a C++ program and it will work on any compiler and any operating system. The other thing they standardized on was a library to go with the compiler. That is a fairly major thing. It will allow vendors of libraries like ourselves a way of assuring there is a way of communicating among the libraries.

"Typically if you buy libraries from six different vendors you are never guaranteed they will all work together. Now they can buy ours and someone else's libraries and they know they can talk to each other. It is a subtle change in the industry but the benefits will be around for a long time."

If every compiler compiles code in the same way, won't that turn compilers into a cheap commodity?

Whitaker believes not. "I think it will be a huge benefit to the compiler vendors because all of the customers will feel more comfortable. The compiler vendors have already been following a trend of moving from the compiler business to the development environment business. They can now get comfortable in adding to the development environment with browsers, debuggers and all of those sorts of things, and the ANSI standards did not standardize on any of those kinds of things." -- glawton@best.com

Resources

• Rogue Wave
  http://www.roguewave.com
• ANSI C++ standardization working papers
  http://www.cygnus.com/~mrs/wp-draft/index.html

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