[boost] [format] conversion to string

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-03-30 08:35:12

Hello!
While it's generally considered a bad practice to provide implicit 
conversions, I think it would be good to provide such a conversion for the  
boost::format class. Currently, I can't write:

  string s;
  s = format("%1%") % 10;

and need to write

  s = (format("%1%") % 10).str();

Maybe it's specifics of my code, but I can count 10 such conversions in a 
single source file. I think that:

1. Calling .str() is rather inconvenient.
2. The 'format' class most often used inside expressions. It's not likely to 
be passed around to functions and so the dangers of implicit conversions are 
not critical. 

Thoughts?

- Volodya