Unfortunately, boost::type_info must derive from std::type_info for compatibility reasons.
It sounds like you just want to extend the functionality of `std::type_info`. Why not make `pretty_name()` a free function that accepts `std::type_info`? Also, an additional `compare_type_info()` function could be added as well to compare types portably. Plus, it would avoid the issues with using strange hacks that border on undefined behavior.
* users want to use Boost without RTTI and fail
Additionally, `boost::type_info` could be a typedef to `std::type_info` when rtti is enabled and then to some internal type to manage type info when rtti is disabled. -- View this message in context: http://boost.2283326.n4.nabble.com/TypeIndex-Peer-review-period-for-library-... Sent from the Boost - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.