Using C++ STL Algorithms without Lambdas is an Advantage

A common complaint about C++ is that there are no lambdas (this will be fixed in C++0x), and most claim this makes STL algorithms like for_each, transform, accumulate almost useless because you have to create functions or functors somewhere else.

Not having lambdas is a GOOD thing. Although it can be annoying to create all these little functions/functors, there is an important advantage in doing so.

It forces you to think more modularly and you end up divide-and-conquering a problem.

It helps you think about your program on a higher level and also helps promote usability. Lambdas by definition are not reusable.

Here is an example

BoundingBox parseBounds(const string& bounds)
{
    //code that does parsing
    .....
    return result;
} 

vector<BoundingBox> createBounds(const vector<string>& bounds)
{ 
    vector<BoundingBox> result;

    transform(bounds.begin(), bounds.end(),
        back_inserter(result), parseBounds);

    return result;
}

If you use the STL algorithms you will be forced to write parseBounds. It is obvious that a function which converts a string to a BoundingBox will be useful in the future. If you wrote the loop yourself or had lambdas, you might have been tempted to write the conversion directly in createBounds.

When I write C++ I rarely write my own loops and I think it is a good discipline to pick up because it will force you to break your code up. It becomes almost impossible to write monolithic functions and also encourages code reuse. Best of all, your algorithms start looking simpler.