Re: [Boost-users] Boost range changes [1.37.0]

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] Boost range changes [1.37.0]
From: Dave Handley (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-11-20 18:42:45

> Dave Handley skrev:
>> <snip>
>>>>
>>>> IMHO, this is obfuscated.  There is a difference between an empty range 
>>>> and a
>>>> range which is optional.
>>>
>>> An there is a difference betweeen an empty range and a singular range.
>>
>> If there is a genuine difference between an empty range and a singular 
>> range, why is the functionality so different between debug and release?
>
> In debug mdoe we detect misused of singular ranges.
>

Unfortunately, different functionality between debug and release is almost 
always a bad thing.  You are no longer testing the same code in both cases, 
and in this case the library will silently fail in release which would be a 
disaster in production.  I'm going to have to side with both Tom and Rob on 
this thread and say that this is a severe retrograde step.  From the 
perspective of a generic programmer, this change turns boost.range from 
being a really useful library, into it being close to unusable.  Please 
reconsider the change.  I just can't agree with any of the reasons for doing 
it - testing a bool in the empty or size functions will have no noticeable 
difference to performance in any real world application.

Dave