For More Information

Visit the C++ in a Nutshell web site at http://www.tempest-sw.com/cpp/ to find links to newsgroups, frequently asked questions, tool and library web sites, free compilers, open source projects, other C++ books, and more. The web site also has information about the ongoing activities of the C++ Standardization Committee.

If you are a glutton for punishment, or if you need more details than are provided in this book, you might want to read the actual standard: ISO/IEC 14882:1998(E), Programming Languages—C++. The standard is not easy to read, and even its authors sometimes disagree on its interpretation. Nonetheless, it is the one specification for the C++ language, and all other books, including this one, are derivatives, subject to error and misinterpretation. The C++ standard library includes the entire C standard library, which is documented in ISO/IEC 9899:1990, Programming Languages—C, plus Amendment 1:1995(E), C Integrity.

The C and C++ standards are evolving documents; the committees meet regularly to review defect reports and proposals for language extensions. As I write this, the C++ standard committee has approved a technical corrigendum (TC1), which is an update to the C++ standard that corrects defects and removes ambiguities in the original standard. TC1 is winding its way through the ISO bureaucracy. By the time you read this, TC1 will have probably completed its journey and been added to the official standard for the C++ programming language. The book's web site has up-to-date information about the status of the C++ and C standards.