Since this is a C++ (and not a C) board, there is no reason why the members shouldn't use STL (unless their compiler doesn't support it).
STL contains numerous classes that make your programming life easier:
- a more intuitive string
- a more flexible and dynamice array (vector)
- quality sorting functions
- algorythm-related functions
and many more...
If you have a good understanding of C++ there is no reason why you shouldn't learn yourself some STL.
Here are a few good STL sites i found:
http://www.mochima.com/tutorials/STL.html
http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/table_of_contents.html
http://www.halpernwightsoftware.com/.../quickref.html
read away, and happy coding!