% C++ and generic programming

Before using CGAL, it is mandatory to be familiar with C++ and the
\italic{generic programming paradigm}. The latter features the notion
of C++ class templates and function templates, which is at the corner
stone of all features provided by CGAL.\\

% STL

An example illustrating generic programming is the Standard Template
Library (STL)~\cite{ms-stl-96}. Generality and flexibility is achieved
with a set of \italic{concepts}, where a concept is a well defined set
of requirements. One of them is the \italic{iterator} concept, which
allows both referring to an item and traversing a sequence of
items. Those items are stored in a data structure called
\italic{container} in STL. Another concept, so-called
\italic{circulator}, allows traversing some circular sequences. They
share most of the requirements with iterators, except the lack of
past-the-end position in the sequence. Since CGAL is strongly inspired
from the genericity of STL, it is important to become familiar with
its concepts before starting using it.