I have not done much with C++ for several years and was surprised to discover that setw ( ) does not work as expected in DM C++ and in Gnu g++.

cout << '[' << setw ( 10 ) << 'X' << ']' << endl;

In Watcom C++ 11.c and in Borland C++ 5.02 the result is:
[          X].

In GNU g++ version about 2.8, I think, and in DMar C++ the result is: [X].

I have tried a couple of things such as "use namespace std;" and changing includes from #include <iomanip.h> to #include <iomanip> and have removed setw ( ) and used cout.width ( ) with some changes in the code to accommodate but with no success.

Does anyone know why the various compilers behave differently?  What did I miss?

Thank you for any help.

Graydon Ekdahl

I think the behaviour you expect is correct.  The '[        X]' is also the result you get from gcc-2.95.3 with STLport-4.5.3, but unfortunately not without it.  MSVC6 also displays that.

If you are interested in ISO-C++ compliance, I suggest gcc-2.95.3 (MinGW or Cygwin) w/ STLport, or Comeau - they are the best!  Unfortunately, DMC is very much behind standard compliance...


Laurentiu


"Graydon Ekdahl, Ph. D." <gekdahl@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:3D13A06D.F17C92F4@bellsouth.net...
> I have not done much with C++ for several years and was surprised to discover that setw ( ) does not work as expected in DM C++ and in Gnu g++.
>
> cout << '[' << setw ( 10 ) << 'X' << ']' << endl;
>
> In Watcom C++ 11.c and in Borland C++ 5.02 the result is:
> [          X].
>
> In GNU g++ version about 2.8, I think, and in DMar C++ the result is: [X].
>
> I have tried a couple of things such as "use namespace std;" and changing includes from #include <iomanip.h> to #include <iomanip> and have removed setw ( ) and used cout.width ( ) with some changes in the code to accommodate but with no success.
>
> Does anyone know why the various compilers behave differently?  What did I miss?
>
> Thank you for any help.
>
> Graydon Ekdahl
>
>