Re: [boost] Formal Review: Boost Cast Library

From: Kevlin Henney (kevlin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-12-08 05:19:33

In message <018301c06089$82142c00$0500a8c0_at_[hidden]>, David
Abrahams <abrahams_at_[hidden]> writes
>I think we may just be poking at semantics in the worst way by trying to
>distinguish casting from conversions. Does the C++ language make a clear
>distinction?

Conversions are not necessarily casts, but casts are always conversions.
A cast is an explicit conversion using an operator-based syntax (well,
one of many, to be precise). For instance, although a popular term,
there's no such thing as an implicit cast.

So, calling a conversions library a cast library if it included non-
cast-like functions would be a category error :->

Kevlin
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