[boost] Re: Container Traits

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-03-02 21:39:14

Pavol Droba <droba_at_[hidden]> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Purpose of this library is to unify an access to an arbitrary "collection".
> Concept of the collection is defined in a paper which is currently
> perfectly hidden in boost/libs/utility/Collection.html
>
> Major benefit it brings is, that it is possible to define non-intrusive, yet
> uniform stl-like access to containers where is would not be possible otherwise.
> This allows us to create generic algorithm, that work on wider range of containers,
> not just those in stl.
>
> container traits (or collection traits as it should be renamed) concept is heavily used
> by string_algo library. For instance the library can handle c-char arrays in much  
> the same way as std::string

I hope we can move away from the use of the term "traits" to mean "any
old non-intrusive interface that can be customized for a particular
type".  Behaviors like push_back, IMO, just don't belong in something
called "traits" -- traits is a very passive term.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com