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

Subject: Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: Boost.String.Convert
From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-02-18 18:30:02

Emil Dotchevski wrote:

>>> (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.)
>> Perhaps. I still don't understand why would you want to use specific
>> functions, like to_string/to_wstring/to_whatever_string(foo) instead of a
>> unified interface function convert< whatever >(foo).
> 
> The answer is the same as why I don't always use templates. I use
> templates when I need my code to be generic, otherwise I do not.

That's an odd argument. You do use STL containers in a non-template 
code, don't you? And perhaps you use shared_ptr< T > in a non-template 
code, too? The lexical_cast< T > may be a closer example. How come 
convert< T > to be that special?

> If I want to convert to T I'll use convert<T> if I want to convert to
> string, I prefer the much lighter s=to_string(x).

Well, at this point it's not obvious how much lighter it is (and even if 
it is lighter at all).