Thread: Learning C++...

I've got no idea if the particular tutorials you are using are in order (that's up to the author) or if another order would be better. Nobody would. Such things are highly subjective.

What I can do is explain what the relationship between the STL and the C++ standard library.


The STL (Standard Template Library) is the name of a library designed by Alex Stepanov. The STL originally implemented a bunch of stuff in four categories.

• the containers (vector, list, etc),
• algorithms (which perform algorithmic operations on containers and other sequences),
• function objects (sometimes called functors - essentially implemented as a class that provides an operator()),
• iterators (objects that support iterating over elements of a container, without exposing implementation details of that container).

Eventually, the specification of the STL (with some modifications) became part of the C++ standard library (the library specified in the ANSI/ISO C++ standard released in 1998).

The other parts of the C++ standard library - which existed before the STL - include I/O (all iostream and related types), the string class, and wrappers for the C standard library.

The name "STL" therefore, now, informally refers to parts of the C++ standard library listed above.

The 2011 C++ standard also added a number of other capabilities that originated in a library called boost.

Tutorials aren't enough to learn the language. I would strongly recommend you get a beginner's book at some convenient time in the future (preferably as soon as possible).
A highly recommended beginner's book is C++ Primer (5th Edition) by Stanley Lippman, Josée Lajoie and Barbara Moo.

Originally Posted by whiteflags

But that's wrong.

Correction: So very wrong...
The use is that it will teach you the basics. The site will only teach you a small subset, which is not enough to go on when first learning C++.