Back to Basics: Classic STL - Bob Steagall - CppCon 2021

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The C++ world experienced a revolution when the original STL was released by HP in the early 1990s. Based on the pioneering work of Alex Stepanov, Meng Lee, and others, the C++ community now had a set of generic container types that did not depend on algorithms, and vice versa. Through its use of well-defined interface and complexity requirements, the design of the STL allows programmers to use library containers with their own algorithms, as well as to use library algorithms with their own containers.

This talk will take a very brief look at the origins of the STL and its importance to C++. We'll then describe the three main pillars of the STL -- containers, iterators, and algorithms -- as well function objects and adaptors. We'll see how they cooperate to provide a set of generic, orthogonal, composable, and extensible programming tools. We'll summarize the containers and their corresponding interface and complexity requirements. We'll look at iterators and how they connect containers with algorithms. And finally, we'll give an overview of the algorithms and how they interact with containers via iterators.

If you're new to C++ or less experienced with the language, and wonder why the STL is such a big deal, this talk is for you. If you're looking for a better understanding of the design and principles underlying the STL, this talk is for you. Attendees will leave this session with a basic understanding of the standard containers, iterators, and algorithms, and most importantly, the relationships between them.

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Bob Steagall
KEWB Computing

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[JosefdeJoanelli]

This was a great talk! Bob is such a clear and concise speaker/presenter.

[tomkirbygreen]

Extremely useful and connected overview. Thank you Bob.

[Xxnightwalk]

Very instructive and very clear
While trying to reimplement containers for practice, I was wondering what iterators were and why they were used
This talk clearly explained it to me and really helped deepen my understanding of the STL

[valeriuok]

Great material, especially the historical walkthrough. However, at 55:15, when talking about queue, there is a slight mistake. queue doesn’t work with vector, because vector lacks the pop_front() method. Probably carried over from the stack slide.

[Kampouse]

actualy learning cpp i use these talks before jumping into code...

[joaotavora]

Bob's "millions" approaches Sagan's "billions". I like

[User-cvee]

What's the deal with input iterator equality. I did not understand what he meant 37:00

[Fetrovsky]

People should stop calling it STL and refer instead to the language's standard library.