Hi, I was playing with the any.hpp library trying to add a generic inserter to an ostrem. To acomplish that I created a pure virtual method print in the placeholder: class placeholder { ... virtual void print(std::ostream& out) const = 0; ... } implemented it in the template holder template<typename ValueType> class holder : public placeholder { ... virtual void print(std::ostream& out) const { out<<held; } ... }; and last but not least I implemented the inserter i the any class: class any { ... friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& out, const any& data) { data.content->print(out); return(out); }; ... }; this was my first attempt and I expected it to work fine, but to limit the use of any to classes that implement inserters, but I had a nice surprise to find out that as long I don´t actually invoke the inserter on non inserter implementing contained objects everything work fine, at least in bcc 5.5 and gcc(mingw) 3.4.2. when I do use the inserert operator for a nom implementing contained object I get a stack overflow exception, it seens like the inserter operator call the print method and print invoke the any inserter instead of the contained object inserter. Beeing able to strem out a unknow object is a huge plus in my current project and I thing it will be a great addition to the library, but I´m wondering how portable (standard compliant?) is my solution and why this recursive call happens with non inserter objects. Sorry if my explanation was not very clear or bad english, this is my first post in this mailing list and english is not my native language. just mail any need for clarifications. Sérgio