posted 13 years ago
Hi... Raja has already given you a great answer. Bravo, Raja!
I will answer the question about STL though... the STL capabiloites are very impressive, but they are sophisticated but generic (platform independent) data-structure and analysis capabilities. For example, you get stacks, vectors, sophisticated list structures, iterators (to go through the lists), automatically sorted lists, data dictionaries, and so on. Not to mention simplified strings that have all the benefits and ease-of-use of Visual Basic strings.
But what STL does not have are features that apply to specific platforms so far as I know. I suspect many of the STL features are useful in creating a database from the ground up (for example), but they are of less help in interacting with a specific, existing database engine like SQL or Access.
So, I must refer you back to the eariler answer from Raja. Great question, though...
-- Brian Overland