Re: [boost] Re: container design (Was: std::complex design (Was: N-Dimensional array))

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-03-08 13:33:00

From: "Howard Hinnant" <hinnant_at_[hidden]>
> On Friday, March 8, 2002, at 12:51  PM, Peter Dimov wrote:
>
> >  One way to solve it (that I see) is
> >
> > template<class F> vector::vector(size_type n, F f);
> >
> > that will allocate memory and use f(this->_Ptr, n) to initialize it.
>
> I believe you can essentially do the same thing with the existing
> iterator interface.
>
> template <class InputIterator>
>    vector(InputIterator first, InputIterator last,
>           const Allocator& = Allocator());
>
> Does your proposal have advantages over this?

Why would anyone want an uninitialized vector? One legitimate reason is that
you have an existing C-style library function 'f' that will initialize it.

I don't see how the iterator interface can be used to achieve the same
effect. If the current vector interface is enough, why all this talk about
uninitialized values?