[boost] Integer library: bin_ubin

From: Dave Abrahams (abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-12-19 16:07:55

I've just been looking at the documentation for this. I'm not absolutely 
clear on the motivation, but as I understand it, the problem is one I have
always thought should be solved differently.

My understanding of the motivation: provide a way to portably and compactly
move integer types across platform boundaries.

My view has always been that it shuold be treated as a streaming problem, by
using a special kind of ostream that writes in a portable binary format
instead of as text. A highly efficient variant would use a simple form of
compression.

The classes as implemented look like you have to make some assumptions about
class layout if you want to use them for the purpose as I understand it.
This may be OK because they're borderline PODs, but I'm not checking to see
whether that's in fact true. Still, I don't think they are likely to be
placed as desired in an array. Just how _are_ you supposed to use these?

-Dave