1 Introduction ¶

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;).