[boost] [none_t] I/O operators patch

Subject: [boost] [none_t] I/O operators patch
From: Gregory Crosswhite (gcross_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-06-05 18:14:49

Hey everyone,

Since my idea to add I/O operators for none_t has been approved by the 
community according to the three-week rule --- which as you all know 
states that any proposals that have received no feedback on the list 
after three weeks are therefore automatically approved by the community 
;-) --- I have written a patch based on the feedback I have received to 
implement these operators and attached it to this e-mail.  To summarize 
my earlier e-mail, the advantage of having these operators around is 
that they allow generic I/O code to be applied to data of type none_t.

One decision that I made in this patch that I have mixed feelings about 
is that I put the operators in the boost namespace.  The advantages of 
this approach are obvious, but the disadvantage is that this "hides" 
them from the user who might not realize that he or she needs to import 
operator>> and operator<< in order to access them (since importing 
qualified operators is something that is not usually done) but instead 
conclude they they don't exist at all.  Alternatives include putting 
them in the global namespace and putting them in the std namespace.  Any 
thoughts on this?

Since the window for adding new features to Boost closes tomorrow, and 
this patch is relatively small and should be fairly innocuous, is there 
a chance that this or something like it could be considered for the next 
release?

Thanks!  :-)
Greg