1.1 The Standard

The standard from 1998 set the ground for a new era of compilers by defining how C++ programs should behave, and by describing the content of the standard library as well as the constraints on its implementation.

The standard is defined by The ISO C++ Committee, i.e. people from the industry: Google, HP, Intel, Oracle, and many more.

It is worth noting that no code is provided by the committee. The standard just describes the language, then independent developers (mostly compiler vendors) provide the implementation. Theoretically, developers can switch easily from one compiler to the other. Clients are not tied to the vendor’s compiler anymore.

As I write there are six revisions for this document, informally identified by the year they came out:

• C++98 defined the core features: the syntax, the memory model, templates, namespaces… And the Standard Template Library (STL): std::vector, std::string, std::map…
• C++03 fixed some wording and inconsistencies.
• C++11 the beginning of what is called modern C++. Initially expected during the 00’s, the committee had to kiss goodbye to some awaited features. Better done than perfect.
• C++14 mostly bug fixes but also nice features: e.g. variable templates.
• C++17 nice new features: fold expressions, if constexpr, copy elision, std::optional, string_view…
• C++20 std::span, concepts, modules… Also: your compiler still doesn’t fully support C++17.