Hello, Am Donnerstag, den 13.04.2006, 08:20 +0100 schrieb Andy Little:
C++'s main problem is that it doesnt have enough standard libraries to compete with (say) Java.
Very well known but true.
Two obvious ones still not on the horizon are Unicode and GUI.
Oh yes, the first one really. But I do _not_ believe C++ needs a standardised GUI API. Really it would probably end up like the string class as it is: either not used or used unwillingly. (And the string class is way smaller than a reasonable GUI library!) It is not possible to add a good GUI library to the standard and finish it in reasonable time. People should really remove this from their minds. Everything else, sockets, UNICODE, all those nice boost libraries, we need them and they can be done because they are operating in more or less standardised and overseeable fields. GUI is different. And effort should really be concentrated into doing the other things right. Please, please don't stop making GUI toolkits but (please) stop crying them into the standard. My feeling says they do not belong there. Oh and: even regarding those libraries that are not part of the standard, there is _no_ good GUI library available that is free to use and open-source.
( I am going to try to do something about the GUI, though there must be much greater GUI experts than me that could do a better job). A major reason given by the committee AFAICS (in GUI case) was that the committee doesnt have enough time to deal with it. Yet there seems to be adequate time to discuss the addition of more complexities to the language itself. A great language missing some essential standard libraries. Will that be C++ epitaph?
I hope not. And hope is essential :-).
bemused Andy Little
with a bit too strong feelings, Aristid Breitkreuz
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