Re: [boost] difference_type size()?

Subject: Re: [boost] difference_type size()?
From: andrey.semashev_at_[hidden]
Date: 2011-10-19 14:38:05

On Tuesday, October 18, 2011 23:30:03 Olaf van der Spek wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> iterator_range returns a signed size. Is this correct?
> IMO it should return size_t.

+1

I too stumbled upon this more than once. The common understanding of a valid 
range is that end() must be reachable by incrementing begin() finite times. 
Making the size signed makes little sense to me and it also introduces a 
problem (rather theoretical, however) when iterator_range is constructed from 
a very large valid range, whose size exceeds 
numeric_limits<difference_type>::max().