title: Why doesn't C++ reimplement C standard functions with C++ elements/style?
body: <p>For a specific example, consider <code>atoi(const std::string &amp;)</code>. This is very frustrating, since we as programmers would need to use it so much.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>More general question is why does not C++ standard library reimplement the standard C libraries with C++ string,C++ vector or other C++ standard element rather than to preserve the old C standard libraries and force us use the old <code>char *</code> interface?<p>
  Its time consuming and the code to translate data types between these two interfaces is not easy to be elegant.</p></li>
  <li><p>Is it for compatible reason,considering there was much more legacy C code than these days and preserving these C standard interfaces would make translation from C code to C++ much easier?</p></li>
  <li><p>In addition,I have heard many other libraries available for C++ make a lot of enhancement and extensions to STL.So does there libraries support these functions?</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>PS: Considering much more answers to the first specific question, I edit a lot to clarify the question to outline the questions that I am much more curious to ask.</p>