[boost] [iterator] Constness of counting_iterator

Subject: [boost] [iterator] Constness of counting_iterator
From: Claas (claas.koehler_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-02-01 10:31:44

Hi all!

I was wondering why the dereference operator of counting_iterator<T> returns a constant reference to
T instead of a reference to T.

Naively I would expect counting_iterator<T>::reference to be T& and counting_iterator<const
T>::reference to be const T&.

I suppose however that there was good reason to implement counting_iterator the way it is
implemented. Could anyone kindly point this reason out to me?

Regards
Claas