Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: Boost.String.Convert

Subject: Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: Boost.String.Convert
From: Emil Dotchevski (emildotchevski_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-02-18 17:08:13

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 1:44 PM, Andrey Semashev
<andrey.semashev_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> Emil Dotchevski wrote:
> I assume there can be connection with other Boost libraries, like
> Boost.NumericConversion or Boost.Units. This library has potential to become
> a common framework for conversion facilities that are reimplemented here and
> there quite often. And I feel that a common and well recognizable interface
> is very important for such a framework. That is, I think it would be better
> to use a common name for conversions in either direction (well, the
> direction doesn't matter anyway, from perspective of such a framework).

Agreed.

The disagreement seems to be about the relationship between such
conversion library and to- and from- string conversions.

IMO, from the viewpoint of convert(), to- and from- string conversions
should be treated as independent interface, much like
Boost.NumericConversion or Boost.Units, etc.

I'm strongly opposed to the approach of "convert() is great for
strings, maybe we'll extend it later for other things." Maybe you
will, maybe you'll find out that it can't be extended because nobody
thought about convert()ing anything but strings. In fact, merely
thinking about the other types isn't enough, we need practical
experience with "the mother of all conversions" library before it is
added to Boost. :)

(Though as it is evident, you'll still have hard time convincing me
that when all I need is to convert a foo to std::string, I have to use
"the mother of all conversions" library instead of the straight
forward to_string.)

Emil Dotchevski
Reverge Studios, Inc.
http://www.revergestudios.com/reblog/index.php?n=ReCode