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ANSI/ISO/IEC 14882:2003 C++ - This is the document in question. Im an intermediate programmer going through the ropes at uni, this is main()ly aimed at the experienced programmer, how important is it to have access to this? For now or future reference. Im not one for reading lenghty documents on the screen and it costs a fair bit. Anything worth knowing let it rip.
not at all important. you can learn what you need about the standards by hanging around here and listening to your professors. people like prelude know enough about the standards to teach you what you need to know.
just make sure you go above and beyond what they teach you in class. for example, in my classes they always said to just put using namespace std; near the top of every program. it was here that I learned it wasn't the best way.
in fact, I would say I derived 70% of my knowledge of C++ and 80% of my knowledge of the standards from this site alone.
Thanks for that, im glad i asked.. i often jump into these things
I have a copy of the standard and I have found it invaluable. Not required, but its a great source of knowledge. I really enjoy the section dealing with the changes from C to C++ and the rational behind it.
Another great use is if you get conflicting results between compilers and/or people you can look it up in the standard to see which one is correct.
Also the electronic copy (which is great because it's searchable) costs $18 USD.
I take it you're a CS major. Then, you really should have it. (At least the PDF version.) You should probably own Stroustrup's book too. :)
I only have the PDF version, and I've found it difficult to naviagte through 700 pages of non-hyperlinked PDF. Usually, when I search, I get too many hits. It has a good index, but flipping between the index and and main-text is more difficult than a hard-copy document. And, the index page numbers don't match the Acrobat page numers due to the ~30 Roman numerial pages up-front. (I suppose I should memorize that offset... Ah, 27 pages!) One of these days, I'm going over to Kinko's to check-into getting it printed & bound. It's a little too long for my inkjet and a loose-leaf binder.
It is a specification, it's not a reference or a tutorial... It was written to be precise... not to be easy to understand!
You probably need the C standard too. In places, the C++ standard refers-back to the C standard. (Both documents are about the same length... Some C-stuff was left out.)
>how important is it to have access to this?
It's always nice to have the definitive reference. That way you at least know the bare minimum of what you can expect from C++. For the most part, you won't need the standard unless you're writing code that has to be portable; has little or no margin for error; or is posted to a forum like this one. :D I have several programmers working under me, and I require them to be able to back up anything they write with authoritative documentation. That usually means that they have to quote me the relevant paragraphs from the standard when I give a code review. The (very desirable) result is that they've improved by leaps and bounds from when I started this practice.
Then again, I'm more anal than most people. You can get away with a good reference such as "The C++ Programming Language" for your entire career, but if you really want to take your knowledge to the next level, a copy of the standard is a must.
If anal gets one where you are, then im sure most would like to be anal ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Prelude