Platinum is highly modular and every module builds to a separate libray. Library modules can depend on other modules and form a hierarchy. The core module is relatively small and the extentions make up for the most part of the library. This allows the programmer to select only the parts of the framework that he really needs.
The C++ standard library is available for almost all devices. It is one of the best documented pieces of software in the C++ world and a great example how both, good design and high performance can be achieved. Pt truly embraces the C++ standard library like few others do and benefits greatly from the effort the designers have put into it. IO is done with real iostreams and there is no need for yet another string class or set of container classes. All exceptions thrown by Pt are derived from std::exception and std::allocators can be used when needed.
In traditional C/C++ programs without exceptions approximately half of the code is required for error handling. Error states constantly have to be checked and passed through the many layers that form a big application. This is not only troublesome and error-prone, but can also have a very negative effect on the performance. It requires to check for errors even in situations when no error has occured. Exceptions have been introduced to the C++ language to solve these problems. They effectively separate error handling from the normal program flow, which lets the program run faster and eliminates many lines of code.
Platinum makes extensive use of templates and generic programming and this is the main reason why it beats most other toolkits in performance. This technique is sometimes refered to as compile time polymorphism, because a compiler is able to inline code more often and this eliminate many function calls. But performance is is not the only reason for templates. Generic programming offers flexibility and code reuse that can not easily achieved with classic object-oriented methods.
Most of the framework consists of classes - it is a class library after all! Multiple inheritance and RTTI are supported, and there are some prime example within Pt how these often misunderstood features can lead to elegant and robust code.
