Question

So the standard c++ library mainly contains roughly 7 categories,

what’s the rationale/prototype that make it deserve being the standard?

BTW,which category does socket programing related stuff belong to in the c++ standard library?

Answer 1

what’s the rationale/prototype that make it deserve being the standard?

The same rationale/prototype that made C++98 a standard.

In the 90’s, a lot of compiler writers were poking with extensions to C. These usually involved adding object-oriented features to C (hence the term “C with Classes”). This was the early days of the internet, and many people involved with compiler writing and language extensions started standardizing things.

The standard library was part of that process. Iostreams came from certain developers. The reason that much of the standard library is called “STL” is because the Standard Template Library was a widely distributed proto-C++ library based on a new feature making the rounds in C++ compilers: templates.

Eventually, an ISO committee decided to get together and form a real standard. They took all the bits that people called “C++”, ironed out a few incompatibilities (iostreams became templated on the character type, though they forgot some things there), and eventually agreed on the ISO standard.

---

As for “socket programming,” that’s not part of the C++ standard library. Therefore it does not belong in any of those categories.

The only reason those categories exist is because that’s what is in the standard library. C++0x will add more categories (threads is a big one).