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

From: Gabriel Dos Reis (dosreis_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-12-10 22:44:10

Beman Dawes <beman_at_[hidden]> writes:

| 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.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

In the first palce, the issue was to *partially* specialize abs() and
put it in namespace std::  That can't be done. That was my main
point.  But I stated it incorrectly; and you're absolutely right to
point out the flaw in my wording.

-- Gaby