About C++ Libraries

When I install an IDE like VB for example, it has C++ libraries.

The question is, how to know the con开发者_StackOverflowtents of a library (methods or manipulators) the way I am intended to do.

Where should a beginner find the contents formally?

I found them in Wikipedia, but I want to know the original source (if we suppose that no internet connection is available).

MSDN would be a good source. And C++ Reference too.

You can donwload the current image of cppreference.com wiki at this address. It is updated daily.

Simple question here, when i install an IDE like vb for example, it has c++ libraries.

What libraries are you referring to?

where should a beginner find the contents formally?

Libraries that are meant for public consumption are described in their respective documentation. Where that documentation is found differs greatly. Most documentations for big public libraries are found online, on the official websites of these libraries, though.

Since the question explicitly mentioned C++, the C++ standard libraries are described at cplusplus.com. There is another large collection of C++ libraries, called Boost which is described on their homepage.

The libraries that ship with VB (which VB, though? VB.NET or VB6?) are Microsoft’s, and are therefore described on their developer network homepage, msdn.microsoft.com. An offline copy of this documentation is installed with Visual Studio; however, the software used to navigate it is barely usable (especially when accessed via Visual Studio).

The original source are the header files (.h files). In these files you will find the functions declarations and class definitions. In some cases, like template code, you will also see the implementationl. In others, the implementation will be precompiled into a .dll or .lib file and you can't see it. But all available things are in the header file. To use its contents you must #include the header file and link against the implementation. For standard library, the linking is done for you by the IDE

Everything that comes with Visual Studio and its subset installations is documented on MSDN. Do you have more specific questions re the C++ libraries? Do you need info on Win32, C runtime (CRT), C++ standard library?

Every lib usually has a coupled header (.h) file that describes the signatures of methods and types available with that library. The library is linked (or dynamically loaded and linked) with the executable while the header is used during compilation to the purpose of static checking the source.

You should just look for an include folder and check its contents.

The contents of a library is contained in the headers which ship with your IDE.

The .h files contain just the function declarations. The source containing the definitions is already compiled, so when you include a header, the linker looks for the function definitions in the libraries that you have linked. Most of the libraries are open source, some of them are just specifications that anyone can implement for example OpenGL, and the standard library is a specification, too. The same goes for the C++ language. Then programmers use the specifications to write implementations (GCC, VC++).

Here you can download the source code of STL C++ https://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/download.html