The Smalltalk-like collection classes of Tools.h++ give you much of the functionality of such Smalltalk namesakes as Bag and SortedCollection, along with some of the strengths and weaknesses of C++. The greatest advantages of the Smalltalk-like collections are their simple programming interface, powerful I/O abilities, and high code reuse. Their biggest disadvantages are their relative lack of type-safety, and their relatively large object code size. Large code is typical even when these classes are used in only small doses because of their initially high overhead in code machinery. All objects to be used by the Smalltalk-like collection classes must inherit from the abstract base class RWCollectable.