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Of course. But these projects exist in addition to a rich standard library.

C++ takes the approach mentioned of having a rich standard library (Boost) that is a separate project from the core language. It (IMO) does not work very well. Many C++ programmers don't use Boost and generic C++ libraries are unable to use Boost as a dependency.

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> Many C++ programmers don't use Boost and generic C++ libraries are unable to use Boost as a dependency.

That is because a boost installation litters your hard drive with several hundred thousand tiny files. I can't in good conscience require end-users to install that monster to compile my 10Kloc project.

Yeah, but C++ doesn't really have a good, cross platform package manager. In Java land, for example, the lingua franca is Maven (even across different build systems).

As a result many libraries are close to de facto standards because any Java dev can easily get those libraries, regardless of being on Win, Mac, random Linux distributions, etc.

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