What C++ compilers are available?
The C++ language has been in development since 1979, but its evolutionary path has meandered a lot, so it was not until 1998 that an ISO C++ Standard appeared (and was updated in 2003). Consequently, our C++ compilers each represent a different snapshot of that evolution, and portability of C++ code suffers seriously. Even a simple Hello, world program needs about three different versions to work on all of our systems. Regrettably, the complexity of the C++ language has delayed compiler and library development, so even in late 2005 when this sentence was written, almost none of our C++ compilers claim conformance to the 1998 ISO C++ Standard. However, the Intel and Sun compilers claim full conformance, and the very recent GNU compilers are fairly close to conformance. All of our systems have a vendor-provided traditional C++ compiler named either CC, or on GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, c++. There is regrettably no standard file-naming convention for C++ source and header fi
