This is the mail archive of the libstdc++@sources.redhat.com mailing list for the libstdc++ project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: libstdc++ documentation


Apologies for the late response - was struck down by night shifts...

Phil Edwards <pedwards@disaster.jaj.com> writes:

> Yeah... this is an itch that I've considered scratching.  There are
> already some excellent references on the library and how to use it
> (e.g., the Josuttis text, the Austern text) and I don't want to
> reinvent the wheel.  So far our documentation has been mostly
> concerned with v3 in particular: implementation features and
> failings, changes we plan on making, etc.

Absolutely.  Besides, I don't think there are many people who could do
half as well as the Big Three texts (Stroustrup, Josuttis, Austern),
and the best alternative is to include appropriate "suggested reading"
references.

However, I was thinking more along the lines of details specific to
the implementation.  One example that springs to mind is the
continguous storage issue with std::vector - appropriate coverage of
what V3 does, what the standard guarantees, and how the standard is
likely to change in future revisions.  This is the sort of thing the
project is going to have to provide solid documentation on, in order
to make the shift from "experimental" to "production".


> There was a good thread a couple months ago on writing a set of man
> pages for the library.  Rogue Wave did something similar; their
> pages are pre-standard but still useful, and in fact are shipped
> with at least one major vendor's compiler.  There is a "C++ Man Page
> Project" at sourceforge which looks like it was created and then
> immediately abandoned; I mailed the project admin asking about
> status, etc, but never heard a response.

Yes, I remember seeing that thread and it still seems like a good idea
to me.  Anything that takes a man page format could eventually form
part of online documentation as well - and it can't hurt to start
collecting more detail on the implementation, organised by header.

Do you have a URL for that Sourceforge project?

I've thrown together something for <vector> based loosely on the
structure of the existing C man pages, which I'll post in a separate
message.

-- 
Cheers,
Rich.  

Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]