on Sun Feb 08 2009, Vladimir.Batov-AT-wrsa.com.au wrote:
David Abrahams wrote:
on Sun Feb 08 2009, Vladimir.Batov-AT-wrsa.com.au wrote:
Now I get the feeling that people are suggesting/implying we should leave lexical_cast behind as an interesting-but-not-quite-successful experiment (which I somewhat agree with) and start fresh free of its shackles.
That's just my opinion. And of course, I could be wrong ;-)
As someone who originally supported Vladimir's original suggestion, I would say that I agree with the idea of a fresh start.
I understand. However, I feel uneasy about the easy we are planning to brush lexical_cast off. That must be very disheartening for Kevlin (the author) and Alex (Nasonov, the maintainer). Primarily for Alex as I feel he's been putting quite an effort into it lately.
I'm not suggesting it be "brushed off," I'm just saying that whatever it's intended to be, it isn't the tool that the many people who want nothrow this-or-that are asking for. I don't believe any good can come from an outraged user community trying to get the author and maintainer to make it into something they don't believe it should be. lexical_cast should remain consistent with the vision of its author and maintainer. If many people need something else, they should have it. Then lexical_cast can gain or lose users on its own merits. -- Dave Abrahams BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com