hi all, at the very end of http://stdcxx.apache.org/doc/stdlibug/34-2.html there is an example of using a reference to create a "copy" of cout. However this example doesn't initialize the defined reference at once (which is required in C++) and for this reason doesn't compile with my gcc 4.2.1.
For convenience here is the example: int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { std::ostream& fr; if (argc > 1) fr = *(new std::ofstream(argv[1])); else fr = std::cout; fr << "Hello world!" << std::endl; if (&fr!=&std::cout) delete(&fr); } Cheers, Misha