Re: [boost] Re: Boost.Threads draft library submission

From: David Abrahams (abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-03-16 19:36:26

----- Original Message -----
From: <williamkempf_at_[hidden]>\
> > 6) It's better to provide an operator const void*() method instead
> of
> > operator bool(). (Unlike bool the const void* one won't implicitly
> convert
> > to umpteen different types).
>
> This argument has come up on here before, and I'm not 100% sure that
> a consensus opinion was reached on this.  Conversion to bool is more
> natural to my mind, and the implicit conversion "to umpteen different
> types" doesn't seem to dangerous to me... at least in this case.
> Changing this will be trivial, so I'll defer to the "experts"
> opinions on this, but I'm not sure that they've fully agreed with
> each other in the past.  Am I wrong?

I think the consensus is that implicit conversions are dangerous, but if you
must provide them, you should avoid implicit conversions to bool.

-Dave