Re: [boost] SOCI 3.0.0 - The Database Access Library

From: Maciej Sobczak (prog_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-10 05:22:18

Thorsten Ottosen wrote:

>> Please see <http://soci.sourceforge.net/doc/boost.html> for details.
> 
> All the optional examles use 'is_initialized()'. It seems like the 
> non-idiomatic way:
> 
>   if (name.is_initialized())
> 
> should be
> 
>   if( name )
> 
> IMO.

I disagree, even though it is not my responsibility to define Boost 
idioms. ;-)

The point is that being optional and being a boolean flag are two 
different things. Merging them under the same syntax saves keystrokes, 
but not the effort to review and understand the code that is already 
written.

BTW - what about optional<bool>?

optional<bool> optional_switch = ...

if (optional_switch)
{
     // the switch can be "false" here!
}

Isn't it confusing?

> John Maddock has made the tool "bcp"
> 
> http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_35_0/tools/bcp/bcp.html
> 
> that allows one to easily make a boost library into an independent 
> project.

I should have a look at this.

-- 
Maciej Sobczak * www.msobczak.com * www.inspirel.com