Miscellany

We thus arrive at the organizational back of the bus, the chapter containing the guidelines no one else would have. We begin with two Items on C++ software development that describe how to design systems that accommodate change. One of the strengths of the object-oriented approach to systems building is its support for change, and these Items describe specific steps you can take to fortify your software against the slings and arrows of a world that refuses to stand still.

We then examine how to combine C and C++ in the same program. This necessarily leads to consideration of extralinguistic issues, but C++ exists in the real world, so sometimes we must confront such things.

Finally, I summarize changes to the °C++ language standard since publication of the de facto reference. I especially cover the sweeping changes that have been made in the standard library (see also Item E49). If you have not been following the standardization process closely, you are probably in for some surprises -- many of them quite pleasant.