NOTE TO READERS OF THE PORTUGUESE TRANSLATION The Portuguese translation of the C++ Annotations is lagging somewhat behind. My apologies for that, but I realize it's a lot of work to upgrade from the 7-series to versions 8 and I'm completely dependent on Sergio Bacchi for upgrades of the Portuguese translation. My advice to readers preferring the Portuguese translation is to read that translation and then check the English version for the latest texts, examples and explanations. Starting with the 8.3.1 release I've removed the Portuguese translations from the source archives, as they're really lagging too much behind by now. However, they remain available at the svn repository. Frank.