Re: [boost] sqlpp11, 3rd iteration

Subject: Re: [boost] sqlpp11, 3rd iteration
From: Gavin Lambert (gavinl_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-08-20 02:50:36

On 20/08/2014 18:30, Michael Shepanski wrote:
> On 20/08/2014 9:54 AM, Gavin Lambert wrote:
>>
>> If you made your type implicitly convertible to optional and back,
>> that ought to make everybody happy. :)  (Well, except maybe the folks
>> who hate implicit conversions, but they're never happy.)
>
> I love implicit conversions.  I love implicitly converting const char*
> to std::string. I love implicitly converting std::string to
> boost::optional<std::string>. So imagine my heartache when they told me
> I couldn't implicitly convert const char* to boost::optional<string>.
> What, you mean I can't really use const char * /wherever/ I can use
> std::string?
>
> I feel that I'm in for more tears if we have an implicit conversion from
> boost::optional to something else.

Two implicit conversions is double-jeopardy, partly because that would 
bring an infinite cycle into scope.

Yes, it does mean that you have to be a little more explicit sometimes, 
but I'm unconvinced that would be a real problem in practice.

Methods in the sqlpp interface would accept a some_other_optional<T>, 
which means that you could pass them one of those directly, or a 
boost::optional<T> (via some_other_optional<T> implicit constructor), or 
a T (via some_other_optional<T> implicit constructor).

Note that the latter cannot implicitly be constructed as a 
boost::optional<T> first because that would require two implicit 
conversions.  So everything should just naturally work.

(And you can't use const char* wherever you use std::string anyway -- 
"a" + "b" is a very different thing from std::string("a") + "b".)