I guess (1) would be better than one().
The only real use for them that I know is with non-built-in types that lack conversion to/from int. (This arises with explicit ctors, etc.)
But since boost policy wants user-defined types to be convertible, the int (1) is better than the subroutine one(), etc.
I guess this was a relic in my brain.
I think we all have a few of those! :-) Actually, lets say we want to multiply a number by 10, the "best" method may vary by type: x * 10 Will likely be the most efficient method for types that support mutiplication by integer natively (for example MPFR), where as: x * ten<mybignum>() may be more efficient if using a literal would result in a temporary "mybignum" being constructed. Sadly nothing is ever as easy as it seems... John.