This volume is definitely worth a read or two, if you want to open your eyes to a variety of applications of STL containers and algorithms. For people already into the practice and way of using STL on a regular basis, it gives you reinforcement and validation that you did good and right in your previous work. Even if you are good already, you may still learn a trick or two here and there through the pages. One of the things I wasn't aware is that a member function must be a const one (calling it won't change the state of the object) if used with a binder (bind1st or bind2nd).



IMHO, the set of books in the "C In Depth" series, edited by Bjarne Stroustrup and published by Addison-Wesley, belong to the first tier, high quality, and highly intellectual. A number of others in the "Professional Computing" series under the aegis of Brian Kernighan, such those by Scott Meyers, belong to the 1st tier, too. There are surely others as well.



One characteristic of the 1st tier works is that they don't spell out all the gory details; they stop short, rightfully, at elaborating on too practical side of things. That is where books such as this particular one come in to fill the void. In terms of quality and content of writing, they may be (and in many cases, in fact) not as rigorous as those in the 1st tier, but they help you see things about which beans are spilled. BTW, an example of 1st tier books about STL in particular is certainly Josuttis' "The C Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference."