What "standard" is the C ++ 11 standard?
I am confused as to what is the final C ++ 11 standard and if there is such a thing, what are the standard updates and where is the authoritative and trustworthy source of this information.
ISO's website offers the "ultimate standard" for in-store purchases , which appears to be current as of late 2011.
However, the working group's website offers many "drafts" that are later than this ISO edition. The last one I see is posted on the working group website in November 2012 (pdf) .
Does this mean that the working group has a newer and updated specification for free, whereas ISO sells old and obsolete documents for a fee? Or is it something else?
Maybe an official link describing the relationship between documents? Official, as opposed to the personal blog of committee members.
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You need to distinguish between "work in progress" (AKA: drafts) and the actual ISO approved standard.
C ++ 11 is an international standard, a specific document ratified by ISO. There were many changes that led to the final standard that was ratified, but these are only changes, not the final standard.
Standard drafts are not standard. They are drafts, just like downloading a random changelog from a Git repository is not a specific version of an application. Drafts are created as work in progress for some possible standardization. But they are not standards, which is why they are called "working draft" (which is on the title page).
Only actual ratified standards can render the previous standards "obsolete". And even then, they are not entirely out of date, because compilers do not instantly and magically support the new one. In addition, the code is not instantly updated to support the new standard if there are violations.
In short, if you want to know what C ++ 11 says, the only document that defines C ++ 11 is ISO / IEC 14882: 2011: Standard for the C ++ Programming Language. Anything before or after is not C ++ 11. Although the N3337 is pretty close, keep minor editorial changes.
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The official documentation of the ISO standards process is of course available on the ISO website . This is a very general description as it covers entities from ISO 9001 (process quality) to ISO / IEC 14882 (C ++).
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