Re: [boost] Formal Review: Boost Cast Library

From: Ed Brey (brey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-12-07 14:22:53

From: "Beman Dawes" <beman_at_[hidden]>
> At 04:33 PM 12/7/2000 +0000, Kevlin Henney wrote:
>
>  > [Discussion of convert_number...]
>  >
>  >This suggests that perhaps we should either rebrand the cast
library the
>  >conversions library, with cast-like functions simply being one of
the
>  >offerings,
>
> Good idea.  That would open it up for future additions which didn't
fit the
> cast mold.

The value of considering it a conversion library goes beyond
flexibility with numeric conversions.  After we have a baseline
cast/conversion library released, I am hoping to move to the issue of
nonthrowing conversion, which may well be best expressed as something
other than a cast, e.g.

bool lexical_convert(const T& source, U& dest)