I have to admit, the STL - and more generally templates - in C++ are very perplexing to someone that has a strong background in a language with a more complete generics implementation (ie, Java or C#).
The very fact that templates are not classes, specifically not base classes for all derived variants of the template is perplexing and, in my opinion, a major swing and miss for a language that seems to pride itself on having everything including the kitchen sink.
I've read the reasons behind why templates do not share any inheritance with derived classes, and it makes sense within the context of how C++ and more specifically the compiler works... but it limits the usefulness of templates past mere containers.
The very fact that templates are not classes, specifically not base classes for all derived variants of the template is perplexing and, in my opinion, a major swing and miss for a language that seems to pride itself on having everything including the kitchen sink.
I've read the reasons behind why templates do not share any inheritance with derived classes, and it makes sense within the context of how C++ and more specifically the compiler works... but it limits the usefulness of templates past mere containers.