I would like to write a container class in a style which fits very neatly into STL. It should look and behave as if it where a standard STL container.
Is there a manual, report, Q&A, etc., out there that describes how to write code with these set of features? Such a text should compromise design principles of the STL, pitfalls, coding conventions, and the like.
PS: This question has been partly inspired by that one: C++ vector with dynamic item size although that idea is not about template classes.
It is not very difficult (for simple data stuctures). You should read the chapter about containers in the C++ standard. You can download the draft of the upcoming C++1x standard here :
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2011/#mailing2011-04
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2011/n3242.pdf
You might want to use boost::iterateror_facade when writing the iterators.
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_46_1/libs/iterator/doc/iterator_facade.html