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

From: Beman Dawes (beman_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-12-10 20:32:37

At 11:18 PM 12/10/99 +0100, Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:

| Programs are definitely allowed (and recommended) to specialize
function
| templates like std::swap and std::less; in fact my recent change to
| smart_ptr.hpp does just that.

>Stop. You can't specialize a template function. You *overload* it.
Two
>differents things; althought they might be seen as having similar
>effects. 

Huh?

14.7 [temp.spec] Template instantiation and specialization (para 3)
says:

     An explicit specialization may be declared for a function
template,
     a class template, a member of a class template or a member
template.

The standard goes on to give many examples of specialized function
templates.  Also see 14.7.3.

Perhaps what you meant was "You can't *partially* specialize a
function template."  That is correct AFAIK.

Cheers,

--Beman