Lexical_cast (const ref or value)

From: Robin (darkaurora_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-09-27 03:46:31

Sorry if this is a well discussed to death issue but why is 
lexical_cast taking a parameter by value and not const reference?

Given that string types may be passed as the source, passing by value 
is not efficient.

Is there any distinct reason to pass by value, other than following 
standard casting convention??

Also, throwing an exception when a lexical_cast fails is not always 
ideal. Why not overload it to return a return code? Something like

template <typename Target, typename Source>
  bool lexical_cast( Target &target, const Source &src )
{
  std::stringstream	ss;

  if ( !( ss << src) || !( ss >> target) || !( ss >> std::ws).eof() )
  {
    return	false;
  }
  return	true;
}

PS:I found a similiar discussion Nov 2000 but the issue seems 
unresolved. So what is the status?