Re: [Boost-users] program_options library, options_description object copying

From: Leon Mergen (leon_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-01 11:19:29

On Thu, 2005-09-01 at 18:14 +0400, Vladimir Prus wrote:
> > Today I upgraded to boost 1.33, which broke the 'program options' part
> > of my application. Copying of a
> > boost::program_options::options_description is not allowed anymore,
> > because of a const unsigned int m_line_length, defined at line 211 of
> > <boost/program_options/options_descriptions.hpp> :
> ....
> > I wonder, why is this not allowed anymore (except the obvious answer
> > that a const variable cannot be assigned a new value) ? What is the
> > "new", preferred way to copy these objects ?
> 
> This was not an explicit design decision -- I just did not though anybody
> will even want to copy options_description instances.

> Why do you do it? I think I can just remove "const".

Hello Vladimir,

Thanks for your response! I've created a generic program options parsing
class, which uses static functions that allow any class to access the
program options without complications.

The initialization of the program options requires a 'void
addProgramOption ( boost::program_options::options_description )', which
copies the program description.

I could of course use the obvious solution and start using pointers
instead of objects, but I really feel I shouldn't have to... :)

Regards,

Leon Mergen