[Boost-users] [Boot.Pool] Opinions about inconsistent pointer types

Hi, I was looking through the Pool code and noticed that it presents inconsistent pointer types to the user ("void *" versus "char *"). For example, if the user wants to implement his/her own user allocator, they have to write it like, e.g. (using "char *" as the pointer type): struct default_user_allocator_new_delete { typedef std::size_t size_type; typedef std::ptrdiff_t difference_type; static char * malloc(const size_type bytes) { return new (std::nothrow) char[bytes]; } static void free(char * const block) { delete [] block; } }; However, other classes return "void *" as their pointer types, e.g. singleton_pool: template struct singleton_pool { static void * malloc() { pool_type & p = singleton::instance(); details::pool::guard<Mutex> g(p); return p.p.malloc(); } } Is it really important that the types be different? I just think it might be more elegant to use "void *" in more places - it would make more things the same and be similar to e.g. "std::malloc/free". -David