AMDG Emil Dotchevski wrote:
What's wrong with the following call syntax:
boost::convert<target>( source const & [,arg1,arg2,...] )
that is, the caller provides the target type for the conversion, then the first argument is considered the source (deduced automatically), and the rest of the arguments configure the conversion.
Going back to my uuid example, uuid.hpp could simply say:
#include <string>
namespace user { class uuid; template <class Target> Target convert( uuid const & ); template <> std::string convert<std::string>( uuid const & ); }
This overload of convert cannot reliably be found as the syntax convert<std::string>(...) doesn't invoke ADL. (At least, not according to the standard. Some compilers perform ADL in this case anyway) In Christ, Steven Watanabe