The Standard Template Library [Lee-Step], [SGI-STL], had the reputation of being complex and hard to use. Because of its exhaustive use of the new C++ language features, most compilers weren't able to fully support this library. Nowadays, new compilers and the standardisation of C++ [ANSI-CPP] not only enable us to use the STL in its full strength, but also show us the drawbacks of a library which apparently was designed from scratch without the possibility of testing and using it. This paper will focus on the syntax and semantics of STL Adaptors and Binders. It will reveal some shortcomings in their C++ implementation and suggest solutions for the encountered problems.
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Postscript Version (103kb), gziped Postscript Version (46kb), Online Version

(Notice: These links refer to the same version of the article which was published in the January 2000 issue of "ACM SIGPLAN Notices")

Some of the source code presented in the paper can be downloaded here though it may not be of usefull in general. I primary used it to test the techniques described in the paper. The file adapter_binder.cpp contains the specialized version of binder2nd while ptr_fun.cpp contains the specializations of binary_function. "adapter_binder.cpp" is known to work with egcs 1.03, egcs 1.1 and gcc 2.95.2 (not with 2.95) while "ptr_fun.cpp" seems to work with any egcs/gcc release not older then egcs 1.1. Both files have also been compiled and tested with the 2.43 version of the EDG front end together with a release of the new SGI standard C++ library.