STL

78 MAY 2007 | LINUX FOR YOU | www. linuxforu. com C M Y K Overview tandard Template Library (STL) is a powerful template library for C++, which is used extensively in the industry. It provides generic, fundamental data structures and algorithms useful for... More

78 MAY 2007 | LINUX FOR YOU | www. linuxforu. com C M Y K Overview tandard Template Library (STL) is a powerful template library for C++, which is used extensively in the industry. It provides generic, fundamental data structures and algorithms useful for most of the programs. So, it avoids reinventing the wheel and provides code that is well tested, versatile, efficient and generic. For example, if you want to write a symbol table for your toy compiler, you can go ahead and write your own symbol table. However, this approach suffers from several disadvantages: The effort required to write a full-fledged, effective and efficient symbol table is substantial. The hand-written code needs to undergo rigorous testing (since the symbol table is a very important piece of a compiler). Finding and fixing problems can take significant amounts of time and energy. The data structure needs to be efficient and effective: achieving this is not easy. If some other programmers are assigned to m Less