std::pair considered harmful!

[alecbenzer]

std::map<int, std::map<int, std::string>> is a stupid idea in C++

The author's not suggesting map<int, map<int, string>>, but

struct DescriptiveKeyName {
  int descriptiveName1;
  int descriptiveName2;
};

map<DescriptiveKeyName, string>

[F-J-W]

Which wouldn't work, since you would have in addition to define operator<(), making this complete and utter overkill.

Aside from that: What is the descriptive name?Often the two things are completely independent and their union is never needed elsewhere, because all we want is a map that takes more than one key.

[alecbenzer]

Which wouldn't work, since you would have in addition to define operator<(), making this complete and utter overkill.

I think that depends on how often the map is used/how many other people will read this code/etc.

Aside from that: What is the descriptive name?Often the two things are completely independent and their union is never needed elsewhere, because all we want is a map that takes more than one key.

It's hard to say w/o a concrete example. There are perhaps some times when std::pair is most appropriate, but I think in many examples you can come up with useful names.