Visual C++ is designed with American National Standards Institute (ANSI) compliance in mind. While non-ANSI-compliant use of some functions is common on the x86 platform, you can only be assured of your application’s portability if you adhere to the ANSI C and C++ standards.
Another reason for adhering to the ANSI standard is that application performance on Alpha platforms is especially sensitive to ANSI compliance. It is strongly advised that you either refer to the ANSI C and C++ standards when in question about an implementation or use the /Za compiler switch. This switch checks for strict ANSI compliance and issues warnings about all noncompliant code.
Note The ANSI C++ standard is actually written by the ISO/IEC committee, but is published and sold through the ANSI organization. At the time of the writing of this manual, July 1998, the November 1997 draft of the standard has been accepted as a standard. You can purchase the ANSI C++ standard for $50.00 plus shipping by calling ANSI customer service at 212-642-4980. The item number to ask for is ISO/IEC FCD14882.