lexical_cast/to_string/to_wstring/lexical_conversion issues - enh ancement or new library?

From: Bjorn Karlsson (bjorn.karlsson_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-29 03:23:15

During the last week or so, we've been discussing some lexical_cast-related
improvements.
However, when improvements starts to divert from the library they're
intended to improve, and/or demand non-trivial changes, it may be the case
that they constitute a new library.

The proposal I made for adding a non-throwing lexical conversion was fairly
simple. Peter Dimov brought up the need for to_string and to_wstring
functions, which is closely related and could be implemented in terms of
that lexical conversion - but only if the conversion was fixed to handle
strings correctly (and lexical_cast could of course use the to_string
implementation). Some interesting ideas came up as to how the signature
should look and how the function(s) should work.

The conclusion seems to be that the functionality is considered to be
useful. However, I'd like some input on whether the changes should be
minimized, and possibly added to lexical_cast, or if I (we) should take the
input from the discussions, go back to the drawing board and incorporate the
changes/improvements in a new library and ask for a formal review.

Any thoughts?
[Kevlin, as the father of lexical_cast, what do you think?]

Bjorn