Re: [boost] [serialization] patch for portable_binary_oarchive.hpp

Peter Dimov wrote:

David Abrahams:

class X;

char * f( X * p ) { return reinterpret_cast<char*>( p ); }

This must give you a char* pointing to the first byte of *p because X's definition may be

struct X { char v; };

and the standard requires a reinterpret_cast to yield a pointer to the first element (9.2/17).

The standard says no such thing. It speaks of a pointer "suitably converted". It doesn't say that reinterpret_cast is such a suitable conversion; in fact, the definition of reinterpret_cast itself makes it very clear that it is not. A suitable conversion is for example the double static_cast that David has shown. Sebastian Redl