Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!rutgers!mcdchg!tellab5!balr!clrcom!rmartin
From: rmartin@clear.com (Bob Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c++
Subject: Re: Is there a standard class library???
Keywords: class, standard, c++, ftp, free
Message-ID: <1990Nov10.203547.21413@clear.com>
Date: 10 Nov 90 20:35:47 GMT
References: <1990Nov7.132313.11181@wam.umd.edu>
Organization: Clear Communications, Inc.
Lines: 51

In article <1990Nov7.132313.11181@wam.umd.edu> einstein@wam.umd.edu (Daniel J. Levine) writes:
>Is there a free Class Library out there which is
>portable from one C++ implementation to another?
>

Yes, there are many.  I am sure that I don't know all of them, but 
I will tell you about the ones that I know of.

First there is the class library put together by the National 
Institute of Health.  It is called the NIH Class Library.  This is
a very comprehensive, complete, and LARGE class library.  It has
a base OBJECT class which imposes lots of rules on derived classes.
It is frought with macros which standardize the declaration of
new classes.  It supports multiple inheritance and uses standard
c++ 2.0.  I am currently attempting to port this package to the SPARC,
and am having some trouble  (Help from the net?).  You can get this
package from uunet, it is in the gnu directories called nihcl (I
think).

GNU has a class library for its g++ compiler.  g++ is similar to
standard c++ 1.x, but there are some extensions and differences.
the libg++ class library makes some use of these extensions.  I
have scanned this library, and have found it to be very comprehensive,
yet smaller and more maneuverable than NIH.  It is missing 
coroutine classes but not much else.  It comes with a tool for
building parameterized container types.  (so does NIH)

There is a company named "Empathy inc" (I think) which makes a 
simple little class library named Classix.  This appears to be
well thought out, lightweight, and useful.  However they appear to
be having some availability problems, since I have not yet received
the SPARC version which I ordered some months ago.  

The book "C++ Techniques & Applications" by Scott Robert Ladd, published
by M&T books contains the source code for a functional little class
library.  It is very lightweight, but sometimes light is better.  I was
pleased to find a PC disk in the back of my copy of the book with the
source code for the classes.  

I suggest a subscription to "The journal of Object Oriented
Programming" and the "C++ Report".  These periodicals have adds for
lots of products including class libraries.

											rm


-- 
+-Robert C. Martin-----+---------------------------------------------+
| rmartin@clear.com    | My opinions are mine.  They aren't anybody  |
| uunet!clrcom!rmartin | elses.  And thats the way I want to keep it.|
+----------------------+---------------------------------------------+