From 256891988308753212 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,dfce3f6ed7b423cd X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public From: ncm@nospam.cantrip.org (Nathan Myers) Subject: Re: maturity of the STL as a standard in the C++ standard library Date: 1998/07/13 Message-ID: <6obh99$2qf$1@shell7.ba.best.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 370985152 Approved: Fergus Henderson References: <6m2afs$9e2$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6moued$o53$1@news.interlog.com> <6mrhrn$5uk$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> Organization: http://www.cantrip.org/ X-Original-Date: 12 Jul 1998 16:36:09 -0700 X-Auth: PGPMoose V1.1 PGP comp.std.c++ iQBFAgUANaoMPeEDnX0m9pzZAQH3BgF8ChddLFIgddMZT4eKmqPPk9btqPKooByW OTcnSQLUfXlF0PIrORD98lysOz6CPL27 =mBqv Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ J. Kanze wrote: >I know of one company that did everything using MFC, ... >they had initially used a third party GUI library, and were >seriously stung when the library vendor when out of business. >Their choice was based on the somewhat reasonable assumption >that whatever the intrinsic quality of their software, >Microsoft would not go bankrupt. This is a strong argument for using a library whose definition is in the public domain. Companies don't only "go bankrupt"; they destroy products, cancel them, render then unrecognizable, change license terms, and what-have- you. Microsoft, though unlikely to go bankrupt, has done all these things, and will again because their primary motivation must always be to maintain their monopolyi (until they lose it). Your needs as a developer (just as for a user) are incidental to this goal. This argues for using standard interfaces (e.g. ISO & Posix), and also for using free libraries. With a free library there is nobody to "go bankrupt" and nobody to make the product unusable for you. Of course a free standard-conforming library is best. You can always find somebody to maintain it for you, even if not for free. There are not yet (and never will be) an acceptable free counterpart for _every_ proprietary library, but when there is, that's the safe way to go. -- Nathan Myers ncm@nospam.cantrip.org http://www.cantrip.org/ --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://reality.sgi.com/austern_mti/std-c++/faq.html ]