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"I'm curious as to why you wrote your own containers instead of using the C++ Standard Library, Boost, EASTL or any of the other existing container libraries. C

"I'm curious as to why you wrote your own containers instead of using the C++ Standard Library, Boost, EASTL or any of the other existing container libraries. Care to elaborate? " A game developer disusses why he often writes his own data structures and steps out of STL and gives concrete examples at http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/02/15/data-structures-one-size-does-not-fit-all/ http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/02/15/data-structures-one-siz... (fwiw I don't have a dog in this discussion. I don't use C++ and never will. The above is offered only because I had that page open in another tab when I read your question, and it seemed relevant)

dkersten 16y ago
Thanks for the link, very informative. Personally, I will write my own data structures, containers or memory allocators when I have a task that doesn't fit nicely into existing libraries. There is nothing wrong with that. I am curious though when people only use their own. For example, I believe that when writing custom containers, providing STL compatible interfaces (perhaps alongside a non-compatible extension if needed) is a good idea because then you can use the STL when it makes sense, but your own when it doesn't (and pass data between them easily). Having said that, I did not spend long looking at the code in question (nd in the sibling comment a good reason was presented for at least some of the custom containers), so perhaps it isn't realistic or reasonable to mix and match in this case. Still, I like to understand peoples reasoning because it helps me improve my own coding practices.