Extended STL, Volume 1: Collections and Iterators

615 Pages·2007·2.85 MB·English

by  Matthew Wilson

Praise for Extended STL, Volume 1
“Wilson’s menu of STL treatments will no doubt be good eating for generic programming adherents,
ardent C programmers just now taking on STL and C++, Java programmers taking a second look at C++,
and authors of libraries targeting multiple platforms and languages. Bon appetit!”
—George Frazier, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
“A thorough treatment of the details and caveats of STL extension.”
—Pablo Aguilar, C++ Software Engineer
“This book is not just about extending STL, it’s also about extending my thinking in C++.”
—Serge Krynine, C++ Software Engineer, RailCorp Australia
“You might not agree 100% with everything Wilson has to say, but as a whole his book is the most valu-
able, in-depth study of practical STL-like programming.”
—Thorsten Ottosen, M.C.S., Boost Contributor
“Wilson is a master lion tamer, persuading multifarious third-party library beasts to jump through STL
hoops. He carefully guides the reader through the design considerations, pointing out the pitfalls and
making sure you don’t get your head bitten off.”
—Adi Shavit, Chief Software Architect, EyeTech Co. Ltd
“Wilson’s book provides more than enough information to change the angst/uncertainty level of extend-
ing STL from ‘daunting’ to ‘doable.’”
—Garth Lancaster, EDI/Automation Manager, Business Systems Group, MBF Australia
“This book will open up your eyes and uncover just how powerful STL’s abstractions really are.”
—Nevin “:-)” Liber, 19-year veteran of C++
“In the canon of C++ there are very few books that extend the craft. Wilson’s work consistently pushes
the limits, showing what can and cannot be done, and the tradeoffs involved.”
—John O’Halloran, Head of Software Development, Mediaproxy
“Essential concepts and practices to take the working programmer beyond the standard library.”
—Greg Peet
“Extended STLis not just a book about adapting the STL to fit in with your everyday work, it’s also an
odyssey through software design and concepts, C++ power techniques, and the perils of real-world soft-
ware development—in other words, it’s a Matthew Wilson book. If you’re serious about C++, I think
you should read it.”
—Björn Karlsson, Principle Architect, ReadSoft; author of Beyond the C++ Standard Library:
An Introduction to Boost
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Extended STL, Volume 1
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Extended STL, Volume 1
Collections and Iterators
Matthew Wilson
Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco
New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid
Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City
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in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, Matthew.
Extended STL, Volume 1 : collections and iterators / Matthew Wilson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-321-30550-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. C++ (Computer program language) 2. Standard template library. I. Title.
QA76.73.C153W55235 2007
005.13'3--dc22 2007016507
Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission
must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permis-
sions, write to: Pearson Education, Inc., Rights and Contracts Department, 75 Arlington Street, Suite 300, Boston, MA
02116, Fax: [phone]
ISBN 10: 0-321-30550-7
ISBN 13: 978-0-321-30550-3
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
First printing, June 2007
This one’s dedicated to
Uncle John, who wasn’t kidding about the second time round,
and to
Ben and Harry, whose “I want you to play with me, Daddy”saved me from many
a hard day’s work (and meeting my first two deadlines),
but mostly to
My beautiful wife, Sarah, without whom little would be achievable and less would
be worth the effort, whose support in a whole manner of ways exceeds even my
own optimistic fancies.
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Contents
Preface xvii
Aims xvii
Subject Matter xviii
Structure xix
Supplementary Material xx
Acknowledgments xxi
Parachutes: Coda xxii
About the Author xxiii
Prologue xxiv
A Dichotomy of Character xxiv
Principles of UNIX Programming xxv
Seven Signs of Successful C++ Software Libraries xxvi
Balancing the Signs: Satisfiction, Dialecticism, and Idioms Old and New xxxii
Example Libraries xxxiii
Presentation Conventions xxxvii
Fonts xxxvii
. . .versus... xxxvii
End Iterator Precomputation xxxviii
Nested Class Type Qualification xxxix
NULL xxxix
Template Parameter Names xl
Member and Namespace-Scope Type Names xl
Calling Conventions xl
Endpoint Iterators xl
Namespace for Standard C Names xl
Class Adaptors and Instance Adaptors xl
Header File Names xli
PARTONE Foundations 1
Chapter 1 The Standard Template Library 3
1.1 Core Concepts 3
1.2 Containers 4
1.3 Iterators 5
1.4 Algorithms 12
1.5 Function Objects 13
1.6 Allocators 13
ix