In case it wasn't obvious, this is one more bullet in my campaign to see the standards committee narrow it's scope to the things that only such a committee can do. That is: a) core language syntax and semantics b) core libraries which place a common interface on underlying machine or operating system implementations Other stuff should be considered separately. Preferably by some other organization but at least by a separate committee. The current structure is failing to scale and the problem is growing (exponentially?). I'm sorry I continue to harp on this, but I'm not getting traction. Note that a huge portion of standard libraries have their origin in other organizations - stl, boost, and others. The committee has a poor track record in delivering quality libraries in a timely manner. Robert Ramey