Re: [Boost-users] A forward iterator need not be default-constructible

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] A forward iterator need not be default-constructible
From: Kim Barrett (kab.conundrums_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-09-30 13:44:55

On Sep 30, 2011, at 12:29 PM, Andrew Sutton wrote:
> 
> Well, two anyways: == and !=. Given that the standard doesn't allow
> those on singular-valued iterators, you're right. I think the standard
> is a little too strict, here.

The underlying values that would need to be compared are potentially
"trap" values (c.f. C++99/6.2.6/5).  Present commodity hardware
typically leads toward different representation requirements for
explicitly capturing things like the existance of uninitialized data,
resulting in runtime distinctions between normal and debug iterators,
for example.  However, there has existed (and may still, or may again
in the future) hardware implementations which provided direct support
for this sort of thing, potentially giving one improved error checking
directly by, for example, producing a hardware exception any time a
trap value is read.  This sort of thing might even be accomplished
with present commodity hardware, by doing things like fiddling with
parity bits.  The standard even alludes to such an approach; see C++99
footnote 44.  I would guess that the standard is written the way it is
in the area under discussion specifically to support various error
checking approaches such as these, and disagree that the standard is
too strict in this area.