From: Nate Eldredge <neldredge AT hmc DOT edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Problem compiling c++
Date: 18 Aug 2001 21:22:47 -0400
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Sahab Yazdani <sahaby AT operamail DOT com> writes:

> [snip]
> > 
> > #include <iostream>
> 
> > using namespace std;
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> what does this do?? I have a bunch of books on C++, but i've never run 
> across this line b4.

You have old books.  AFAIK, all the standard C++ library functions are
now defined to be in the `std' namespace.  (Namespaces are another
more recent C++ feature that allow several things with the same name
to coexist, regardless of their scope.)  You'd normally have to write

std::cout << "hello";

The `using namespace foo' directive tells the compiler to assume that
anything whose namespace is not explicitly given is in namespace
`foo'.

Recent editions of Stroustrup cover this.

The people in comp.lang.c++ can probably give you a more exact
description of this feature.

-- 

Nate Eldredge
neldredge AT hmc DOT edu