Our Competitors

Every major C++ compiler supplies Standard C and C++ libraries. If these are good enough for your needs, then you don't need to license anything additional from us. In this sense, we're our own biggest competitor, since we supply the Standard C++ library used by Microsoft and many other compiler vendors. But the Dinkum Compleat Libraries offer far more than just a replacement Standard C++ library:

• They provide important additional functionality, such as TR1, allocators, and character code conversions.
• They are more uniform across platforms, with greater emphasis on portability than compiler-specific libraries.
• They fill in the blanks, as it were, particularly in the area of C95/C99 support.

eMbedded VC++ is a telling example. For some reason, every version of VC++ in this family omits different subsets of the Standard C and C++ libraries. By licensing our Source Edition you greatly ease the task of moving code among the various desktop and embedded versions of VC++.

So if you're not content with what comes with your compiler, you need to consider adding a third-party library. And then you have to decide whether it's cheaper to license a prepackaged and supported product or to get something free and assume responsibility for integration and support yourself.

DINKUMWARE LTD is the last remaining commercial supplier of Standard C++ libraries, and has long been the only commercial supplier of Standard C libraries. We write all our own software and distribute no software encumbered by any form of open-source license restrictions. (For an eclectic list of open-source licenses, as compiled by Project Gnu, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html.)

• libraries written by people who do so for a living
• uniform licensing terms from a single supplier
• ongoing support by the people who maintain and enhance the code

Our customers are developers who understand that commercial software often provides the lowest total cost solution.

But if you want to try the free alternatives to various parts of our libraries, here's a list of places to look:

http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html -- The GNU C Library is the C library that accompanies Linux. It is a (large) superset of the Standard C library, circa 1995, which works primarily with Linux.

http://gcc.gnu.org -- GCC is the Project Gnu C/C++ compiler (among other things). It comes with an implementation of the Standard C++ library called libstdc++, which works only with GCC. The mailing list for libstdc++ developers is at http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/libstdc++.

http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl -- SGI STL is a packaging of the Standard Template Library first developed at Hewlett-Packard. It has not been maintained for several years, and doesn't conform fully to the C++ Standard. But it is well written and still usable. It requires an existing Standard C library.

http://www.stlport.com -- STLport is a packaging of SGI STL plus the iostreams library also developed at SGI. With enhancements from other sites, it makes a reasonably complete Standard C++ library. It requires an existing Standard C library. The STLport support forum, at http://www.stlport.com/cgi-bin/forum/dcboard.cgi, is moribund; the package is now maintained informally by volunteers (see http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=490891).

http://incubator.apache.org/stdcxx -- Apache C++ Standard Library is the commercial Rogue Wave Standard C++ library converted to open source. It requires an existing Standard C library. See the Mailing Lists, near the bottom of the web page, for support information.

http://www.boost.org -- Boost is a clearinghouse for libraries built atop the Standard C++ library. A significant portion of C++ Library TR1 derives from libraries first offered by Boost. But see our competitive analysis of TR1 implementations.