Re: [boost] Re: lexical_cast with default value

From: Jonathan Wakely (cow_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-05 10:40:52

On Thu, May 05, 2005 at 10:29:07AM -0500, Dave Dribin wrote:

> On May 3, 2005, at 3:27 AM, Kevlin Henney wrote:
> >
> >I'd be interested to hear your ideas.
> 
> Since it sounds like the main argument against adding a second argument 
> is that it is no longer cast-like, the simplest idea is to rename 
> lexical_cast so it is no longer cast-like.  I was thinking convert_to 
> would be nice and readable:
> 
>   int n = convert_to<int>("abc");    // Should throw an exception... 
> bad_conversion?
>   int n = convert_to<int>("abc", 0); // Should return 0
> 
>   string s = convert_to<string>(5);
> 
> The main issue with renaming, obviously, is backward compatibility.  Of 
> course, there's no need to remove lexical_cast right away, or at all, 
> even.  Maybe make it deprecated, or at least implemented in terms of 
> convert_to.

If you want a function with a different name and a different behaviour,
isn't that a different function?

In which case, why even consider removing lexical_cast ?

jon