Re: [boost] [format] Any interest in decoupling it from std::basic_string?

Subject: Re: [boost] [format] Any interest in decoupling it from std::basic_string?
From: Luke Elliott (lukester_null_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-07-05 14:30:12

On 05/07/2012 18:53, Olaf van der Spek wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 6:44 PM, Luke Elliott <lukester_null_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> Right. So what exactly is the problem?
>>> Return type of format::str()?
>>>
>>
>> Well "problem" is a bit strong, but str() is the issue with using
>> alternative strings with "no" changes to client code AFAICT. I'm sure there
>
> Because std::string can't be assigned to the alternative string type?

Yes. lexical_cast works, and obviously .c_str()/.length() could be used 
but instead of a 50-odd line patch to boost.format that's a whole load 
more changes to a lot of client code... plus whilst I don't care about 
format performance, I'm not sure I don't care about it enough to not 
care about additional string construction :)

>
>> are many other ways to achieve the same result, but this is the least
>> intrusive for me.
>>
>> Anyway, no big deal if there's no interest - it doesn't seem like there's
>> much development of format these days so it's not like it's going to be much
>> effort with each new boost release to keep the patch up-to-date.
>>
>> (I guess there's also no interest in a hack around the (format("%u") %
>> byte_t(65)) == "A" problem...)
>
> I've been bitten by that one too and wouldn't mind seeing a solution.
>
>

Well I've attached my hack. I'm sure it's wrong in lots of ways but 
kinda does the trick, for some definition of kinda.

Cheers

Luke.