Why doesn't C++ reimplement C standard functions with C++ elements/style?

Question

For a specific example, consider atoi(const std::string &). This is very frustrating, since we as programmers would need to use it so much.

Answer 1

Because the old C libraries still work with standard C++ types, with a very little bit of adaptation. You can easily change a const char * to a std::string with a constructor, and change back with std::string::c_str(). In your example, with std::string s, just call atoi(s.c_str()) and you're fine. As long as you can switch back and forth easily there's no need to add new functionality.

I'm not coming up with C functions that work on arrays and not container classes, except for things like qsort() and bsearch(), and the STL has better ways to do such things. If you had specific examples, I could consider them.

C++ does need to support the old C libraries for compatibility purposes, but the tendency is to provide new techniques where warranted, and provide interfaces for the old functions when there isn't much of an improvement. For example, the Boost lexical_cast is an improvement over such functions as atoi() and strtol(), much as the standard C++ string is an improvement over the C way of doing things. (Sometimes this is subjective. While C++ streams have considerable advantages over the C I/O functions, there's times when I'd rather drop back to the C way of doing things. Some parts of the C++ standard library are excellent, and some parts, well, aren't.)