Book excerpt: Introduces programmers to the generic programming paradigm and to the C++ Standard Template Library and its use as an extensible framework for generic and interoperable components. Explains ideas underlying generic programming and shows how to create algorithms decoupled from the types and data structures they operate on, and how to write more efficient code that can be used and reused across platforms. Assumes familiarity with C++ and algorithms. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR