it was put forward to the standards comittee by MS, who have a powerful voice there. no-one else wanted it, which is why it ended up in an annex of the standard

it was put forward to the standards comittee by MS, who have a powerful voice there. no-one else wanted it, which is why it ended up in an annex of the standard. it is badly designed, and does nothing that you can't do yourself, and should be doing yourself, in any well-written code.