[boost] Re: Specializing std::swap? (Something I posted to comp.std.c++.)

From: Gabriel Dos Reis (dosreis_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-12-10 22:53:14

Darin Adler <darin_at_[hidden]> writes:

[...]

| Recently, someone pointed out to me that the swap definition in the above
| code is illegal. I thought that I was specializing a swap function template,
| but in fact this is not possible. As I understand it, there's no such thing
| as a specialization of a function template. It's possible to overload a
| function template, but not specialize it. After hearing this, I am not even
| sure if the syntax is correct in the code above.

I don't know if "someone == me" but I would like to correct the
confusion I've created on this isssue.  As Beman pointed in another
article you can *explicitly* specialize swap() in namespace std, but
you can't /partially/ specialize it, as there is no such thing.  I was
too imprecise in my earlier posting. Sorry for the confusion.

So as far as I tell tell the first implementation is right, as it
doesn't attempt to "partially" specialize std::swap: it merely
explicitly specializes.

-- Gaby