Downsides to the C++ STL?

craybob queries: "I'm a developer for a small software group that will soon migrate from using Rouge Wave to using the C++ STL. I just left the week-long Software Developers 2002 conference, where I heard the great minds in software tell us all of the best ways to take full advantage of the STL. (I just wanted to give a quick thanks to Stephen Dewhurst and Scott Meyers) From this I came away with the feeling that this is the Holy Grail of C++. I'm sure these guys are right and that it is great, but the truth is that I'm a skeptic, so what are the downsides to the STL?"

Comments

Need a strong application language?

[defile]

Try Python

It's way easy to learn and understand and extremely powerful. Integrates well with C/C++.

Re:One Downside

[Talonius]

And hey, at least it's not C#. : )

-shrug- I've been looking at using C# in the ASP.NET model as a backend for our application here (porting over to a thin client) and have been amazed at the level of effort that Microsoft put into making ASP.NET backwards compatible.

While ASP.NET does work better and faster when running under Internet Explorer than under Netscape Navigator the web pages when viewed using Netscape remain completely capable; there is no loss of functionality due to browser change.

As for C# itself it's a language that's meant to keep the system clean. By automating things such as garbage collection, ensuring that variables must be initialized before use, and making the passing of reference and value types more distinct, it does what it sets out to do - ensures that the programmer can concentrate on -high level- stuff rather than low level - and not worry about whether or not he's causing a buffer overrun because he's working at 2AM and 3 weeks behind a deadline.

C# is -not- Win32 specific. I can't wait for Miguel to get his port of the CLR done so I can start using it as a language under the Linux platform. I personally view C# as a -great- programming language. I viewed it with distaste when I began but now very much think of it in a positive manner.

As for why Microsoft - we run MS SQL 7 on the backend; we're not going to switch to Oracle just so our database server can move to a *nix variant, ASP.NET integrates (quite, quite nicely) with MS SQL. This move does alleviate our requirement to run Win32 desktops which was a goal of mine (whether or not our networking department makes that shift is up to -them- but I don't want to be blamed for locking us into a Microsoft shop) - only our backend needs to remain Microsoft.

Mod as a troll or flamebait as you like. This is just my opinion. :)