autosprintf: Introduction
1 Introduction
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This package makes the C formatted output routines ('fprintf' et al.)
usable in C++ programs, for use with the '<string>' strings and the
'<iostream>' streams.
It allows to write code like
cerr << autosprintf ("syntax error in %s:%d: %s", filename, line, errstring);
instead of
cerr << "syntax error in " << filename << ":" << line << ": " << errstring;
The benefits of the autosprintf syntax are:
* It reuses the standard POSIX printf facility. Easy migration from
C to C++.
* English sentences are kept together.
* It makes internationalization possible. Internationalization
requires format strings, because in some cases the translator needs
to change the order of a sentence, and more generally it is easier
for the translator to work with a single string for a sentence than
with multiple string pieces.
* It reduces the risk of programming errors due to forgotten state in
the output stream (e.g. 'cout << hex;' not followed by 'cout <<
dec;').