Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c++:3055 comp.lang.lisp:1671 comp.lang.misc:2843
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.misc
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: lack of C++ library documentation
Message-ID: <1989Apr21.195311.5572@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2602@ssc-vax.UUCP> <5947@pdn.paradyne.com> <38836@bbn.COM> <15425@bellcore.bellcore.com> <25399@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 89 19:53:11 GMT

In article <25399@watmath.waterloo.edu> gjditchfield@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Glen Ditchfield) writes:
> ...The paper mentions Jonathan Shopiro's "counted pointer" classes, which
>provide garbage collection for C++.  Unfortunately the reference given is
>for a then-unwritten paper.  Is there a better reference or a publically
>available implementation?

Probably not.  In general, there is a grievous need for another book, a
companion to "The C++ Programming Language", to document and de-facto
standardize a bunch of basic libraries.  C++'s big win is the ability to
write powerful and useful libraries, but most of the "well known" libraries
are documented in obscure technical reports, manual pages accompanying
particular implementations, or purely as folklore.  The result is that
it's hard to find out about them and reinvention and mutation are rampant.
-- 
Mars in 1980s:  USSR, 2 tries, |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
2 failures; USA, 0 tries.      | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu