1.5 The Standard versus Reality

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The C++ standard has been available since late 1998. However, it was not until 2002 that a publically available compiler could make the claim to "conform fully to the standard." Thus, compilers still differ in their support of the language. Several will compile most of the code in this book, but a few fairly popular compilers may not be able to handle many of our examples. We often present alternative techniques that may help cobble together a full or partial solution for these substandard C++ implementations , but some techniques are currently beyond their reach. Still, we expect that this problem will largely be resolved as programmers everywhere demand standard support from their vendors .

Even so, the C++ programming language is likely to evolve as time passes . Already the experts of the C++ community (regardless of whether they participate in the C++ Standardization Committee) are discussing various ways to improve the language, and several candidate improvements affect templates. Chapter 13 presents some trends in this area.

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