[boost] Re: Including abs() in rational.hpp

From: Gabriel Dos Reis (dosreis_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-12-10 17:22:32

jsiek_at_[hidden] writes:

| So the letter of the law makes it illegal, but was this really the
| intention? Seems to me this causes nasty problems for generic
| libraries.

Can you show any nearly real-world problem in our specific case?

| ...  Since std::abs() is not all-applicable, it forces
| the *user* to do "using std::abs;" etc, for every operation
| of this nature that is used in the algorithm. 

No. The user will write std::abs() only when he knows the
argument type comes from ::std or is defined by the language.

In an hypothetical ultra-generic case, he'll count on Koenig
lookup. That is why that rule was put in in the first place.

-- Gaby