September 1998
Volume 16 Number 09
ALGORITHMS
Applying Stream Encryption
Warren Ward
A surprisingly small amount of effort can yield a large degree of protection, if you encrypt just the right stuff just the right way.
Smart Iterators and STL
Thomas Becker
Because they're templates, you can smuggle added functionality into STL algorithms all sorts of ways, even through iterators./p
FEATURES
Extending the Reference-Counting Pattern
Vladimir Batov
It's often nice to have storage management that's a bit smarter than you get with auto_ptr but rather less complex than automatic garbage collection. Here's one style of smart pointers that strikes such a careful balance.
bsed: A Stream Editor for Binary Files
Steven G. Isaacson
Here's a quick (and dirty) way to patch binary files with a simple software tool.
Advanced Serial Port Communication Under Win32
Thanos D. Konstantinidis and M.G. Strintzis
It's really easy to communicate with an external device through a serial port — once you get all the administrivia under control.
Inline Containers for Variable Arguments
Andrei Alexandrescu
How can you pass a varying number of arguments to a function and maintain type safety? One argument at a time.
C/C++ CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Standard C/C++: Last of the Facets
P. J. Plauger
Programming language support for internationalization has its limits, no matter how ambitious the library that comes with the compiler.
C++ Theory and Practice: const in Parameter Lists
Dan Saks
const promises a lot in a parameter list, but sometimes it appears to promise too much.
The Learning C/C++urve: C/C++urve Ball
Bobby Schmidt
What's the difference between an array and a vector? Whatever you make it.
Questions & Answers: Implementing Dynamic Function Calls
Pete Becker
Pete tackles head on how to use tables of function pointers, a powerful but confusing subject since the earliest days of C.