21.1. Introduction

This chapter considers C++'s future. We introduce the Boost C++ Libraries, Technical Report 1 (TR1) and C++0x. The Boost C++ Libraries are free, open source libraries created by members of the C++ community. Boost provides C++ programmers with useful, well-designed libraries that work well with the existing C++ Standard Library. The Boost libraries can be used by C++ programmers working on a wide variety of platforms with many different compilers. We overview the libraries included in TR1 and provide code examples for the regular expression and smart pointer libraries. Technical Report 1 describes the proposed changes to the C++ Standard Library, many of which are based on current Boost libraries. These libraries add useful functionality to C++. C++0x is the working name for the next version of the C++ Standard. It includes some additions to the core language, many of the library additions described in TR1 and other library enhancements.