I believe casting through pointers is more restrictive and predictable than casting through references (e.g., T& could be even implicitly convertible to U& without T* convertible to U*; even the case of converting base_type& to derived_type& could be using some converting constructor in derived_type), so I don't think this would be a wise change indiscriminately.
It looks to me like in this iterator_facade case, though, a reference cast is probably fine...
Of course, I missed that. Arguably, in all such cases, boost::addressof should be used because the result of an overloaded operator& is just as unpredictable as the result of a conversion operator. So something like: template< class T, class S > T const& inheritance_cast( S const& s ) { return *static_cast< T const* >( boost::addressof(s) ); } template< class T, class S > T & inheritance_cast( S & s ) { return *static_cast< T * >( boost::addressof(s) ); } Arno -- Dr. Arno Schödl | aschoedl@think-cell.com Technical Director think-cell Software GmbH | Chausseestr. 8/E | 10115 Berlin | Germany http://www.think-cell.com | phone +49 30 666473-10 | US phone +1 800 891 8091 Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 85229 | European Union VAT Id DE813474306 Directors: Dr. Markus Hannebauer, Dr. Arno Schoedl