[boost] Re: abs and swap -or- overloading vs. specialization.

From: scleary_at_[hidden]
Date: 2000-01-24 13:17:00

> The exception is code in std, which (because of prohibitions
> against overloading in std), MUST rely on Koenig lookup for functions like
> abs or swap which it is expecting the user to customize.

Actually, I would suppose that "overloading" std functions is going to be
the rule, not the exception.

> On the other hand,
> implementors of the standard library should probably be cautious and
> explicitly qualify most function calls to avoid causing conflicts with
names
> which the user reasonably believes he can use safely within his own
> namespace.

But this would prevent users from "overloading" those functions for
efficiency.

IMO, the best resolution is a change to the Standard, allowing overloading
of functions in namespace std as long as the same semantics were preserved.
This would allow us to always use explicit qualification.  Has this been
presented as an issue to the working group yet?

        -Steve