"Jeff Garland" <jeff@crystalclearsoftware.com> writes:
Having not used optional extensively, I don't have a strong opinion on which interface might be better, but it's been my experience that objections to the pointer interface seem to be moral positions not backed up by any sound technical argumentation. That said, moral positions count when they are connected to votes in the committee, so if there's a general consensus against the pointer interface there, the onus is on those in favor of it to produce sound argumentation in favor.
The orginal objection came from Mat Marcus and was simple -- he had to support more junior programmers who somehow become confused by the pointer interface.
Understandable. However, many of our most elegant interfaces are prone to confuse the uninitiated. I just had to clarify to someone that the parameter library interface is threadsafe and doesn't mutate any global state.
So this wasn't a theoretical or moral argument, but rather an in the trenches user report. As I recall the discussion, he was still a supporter of the proposal overall. You might want to try and get with Mat offline...
I did speak to Mat about it in Quebec. I'll let him continue to speak for himself, though. :) -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com