On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 6:34 PM, Olaf van der Spek <ml@vdspek.org> wrote:
What do other Boosters think?
I think the idea is great. In fact, I've written similiar classes: http://code.google.com/p/xbt/source/browse/trunk/xbt/misc/xbt/data_ref.h I've posted about the idea on this list before, but received few responses.
The idea is that you've got a non-template function that takes an array. Often types used are (const void*, size_t) or (const char*, size_t), which is cumbersome. Iterators instead of pointers wouldn't really work.
std::string with small string optimizations is sub-optimal if input is not an std::string, but for example std::array.
N3334 does not really address the (const void*, size_t) case.
BTW, isn't there a forum / mailing list to discuss these proposals?
Yes, and they are usually better choices than the Boost list for discussion about committee proposals. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.std.c++ for one, but it hasn't been very active recently. The committee has its own discussion lists, but they are available only to members. I particularly value the feedback from Boost members, and thought there might be a lot of Boost interest in this particular proposal. Thanks, --Beman