Re: [Boost-users] Report from Mont Tremblant C++ Committee meeting

From: Gennadiy Rozental (gennadiy.rozental_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-10-11 14:59:23

>>There concern was that at least some of the algorithms were only useful in
>>the context of strings, and so it would be an over-generalization to 
>>supply
>>them as free algorithms.
>>
>>One way to counter that argument would be to identify the functions you 
>>have
>>found useful on other containers, and to provide some use cases to 
>>buttress
>>the argument.
>
> Well, one thing I use it for is parsing HTTP directly in the read
> buffer, which is a vector. If the interfaces weren't generic, I'd either
> have to write my own functions to duplicate the functionality, or I'd
> have to copy the incoming data to a string. The first seems silly, and
> the latter would have unacceptable overhead in my case. The HTTP I'm
> parsing is streaming video from several dozen cameras at once, so I have
> to work with the buffers directly.
>
> I also use this library on plain old C strings, which wouldn't be
> possible if it were locked to basic_string.
>
> Some changes may make sense, but I really like the way it is now.

The way I see it all string algorithms should be using class like 
const_string in their interfaces. basic_string should implement const_string 
interface. I really think we need to provide this within boost (I know there 
is something in queue - lets where it will go)

Gennadiy