An extract from
http://www.infosys.tuwien.ac.at/Research/Component/tutorial/prw1.htm :

Motivation. In the late 70s Alexander Stepanov first observed that some
algorithms do not depend on some particular implementation of a data
structure but only on a few fundamental semantic properties of the
structure. Such properties can be - for example - the ability, to get from
one element of the data structure to the next, and to be able to step
through the elements from the beginning to the end of the structure. For a
sort algorithm it is not essential if the elements to be sorted are stored
in an array, a linked list, etc. Stepanov examined a number of algorithms
and found that most of them could be abstracted away from a particular
implementation and that this abstraction can be done in a way that
efficiency is not lost. Efficiency is an essential point that Stepanov
emphasizes on, he is convinced that no one would use an algorithm that
becomes inefficient by instantiating it back.

The STL history. Stepanovs insight - which hasn't had much influence on
software development so far - will lead to a new programming paradigm in
future - so the hope of its discoverer. In 1985 Stepanov developed a
generic Ada library and was asked, if he could do this in C++ as well. But
in 1987 templates (see section 2.3) - an essential technique for this style
of programming - weren't implemented in C++ and so his work was delayed. In
1988 Stepanov moved to the HP Labs and 1992 he was appointed as manager of
an algorithm project. Within this project, Alexander Stepanov and Meng Lee
wrote a huge library - the Standard Template Library (STL) - with the
intention to show that one can have algorithms defined as generically as
possible without losing efficiency.

STL and the ANSI/ISO C++ Draft Standard. The importance of STL is not only
founded in its creation or existence, STL was adopted into the draft
standard at the July 14, 1994 ANSI/ISO C++ Standards Committee meeting.
That means that if not happened till now anyway, compiler vendors will soon
be incorporating STL into their products. The broad availability of STL and
the generic programming idea give this new programming paradigm the chance
to positively influence software development - thus allow programmers to
write code faster and to write less lines of code while focusing more on
problem solution instead of writing low-level algorithms and data
structures.

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