Re: [boost] [system] system-0.2 request for comments

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-07-23 18:42:35

Gennaro Prota wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 09:26:55 -0700, Jeff Garland
> <jeff_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
>> The identifier is a interesting.
> 
> It's much more than that! I did run and see it (proud to be the first
> downloader of version 0.2.1 :-)) and I'm enthusiastic. Too many times
> I've realized I needed something to stem the pervasive danger of
> Win32's all-is-a-dword typedefs and postponed the issue.

Don't get me started ;-)

> This is one of those lovely pearl which combine elegance and
> usefulness in a way which happens to be obvious only once you have
> seen it. That's the Euclid algorithm of the type system! :-)

Well, it's handy, but it's only part of the story.  One might argue that this 
utility could be combined with other 'value-type' programming tools like 
Boost.Enum (although I don't really care that much for some of the details of 
the current proposal) and constrained_value.  These are small utilities that 
allow the quick generation of valuetypes that clarify interfaces and prevent 
errors.

> About the name, isn't "identifier" meant as "something which gives an
> identity" rather than as "C++ grammar identifier"?

I guess my issue is that identifier normally means the name of a type 
instance....so that's a point of confusion for me at least.

Jeff