Re: [boost] [lexical_cast] char types and UDTs

Subject: Re: [boost] [lexical_cast] char types and UDTs
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-04-11 02:54:07

On 4/10/2012 9:22 PM, Antony Polukhin wrote:
> 2012/4/11 Eric Niebler <eric_at_[hidden]>:
>> There is an internal trait, boost::detail::stream_char, that
>> lexical_cast uses to determine what the character type of the source is
>> (if any). It's specialized on only a fixed number of types. Since it's
>> an implementation detail, it can't be used to extend the set of types.
>> Also, I tried specializing it. In past versions of Boost that just
>> worked, but it doesn't anymore.
>>
>> I think being able to extend lexical_cast to support types like
>> (std|boost)::wssub_match is an essential feature. Thoughts on how to get
>> there from here?
> 
> Specializing boost::detail::stream_char is not nice. Why just you
> don't specialize lexical_cast directly:
> 
> namespace boost {
> 
> template <class Target, class BiIter>
> Target lexical_cast(const sub_match<BiIter>& m)
> {
>    return boost::lexical_cast<Target>(m.str());
> }
> 
> } // namespace boost

Calling m.str() creates a temporary std::wstring object, which incurs a
dynamic allocation and is slow. Speaking for my own library (xpressive),
sub_match has an optimized stream insertion operator. It should be used.

But my primary objection is below...

> [Not tested]
> 
> Using this approach you will also get a faster version of lexical_cast
> (which does not copy data to STL stream and does not construct heavy
> STL stream objects). This approach is also described in lexical_cast
> trunk documentation, in section 'Tuning classes for fast lexical
> conversions'.
> 
> I'll add your question to the FAQ section of lexical_cast documentation.

Doesn't boost have a policy against adding overloads in the boost
namespace? Perhaps not, but maybe it should. I know the std namespace
has such a restriction. It seems dubious telling users to extend a
library this way. A user should be able to do:

  Dst (*pfun)(Src const &) = &boost::lexical_cast<Dst, Src>;

and expect that to "work". If there are a bevy of overloads, then that
will end up calling a different function.

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com