This package is based on the package 'ptlib' from project 'network:telephony'.

PTLib is a moderately large class library that has its genesis many years ago as PWLib (portable Windows Library), a method to product applications to run on both Microsoft Windows and Unix X-Windows systems. It also was to have a Macintosh port as well but that never eventuated. The parts of the library relating to GUI functions have long been removed as other class libraries such as wxWidgets were much more advanced.

Since then the system has grown to include many classes that assist in writing complete multi-platform applications. Classes for I/O portability, multi-threading portability, aid in producing unix daemons and NT services portably and all sorts of internet protocols were added over the years. So it became a Portable Tools Library and was renamed to PTLib.

All this over and above basic "container" classes such as arrays, linear lists, sorted lists (RB Tree) and dictionaries (hash tables) which were all created
before STL was standardized. Future versions of PTLib will see many of these classes replaced or supplemented by STL.