John Nagle wrote:

This looks rather complex for what it does.

It might be helpful to define the user-visible API first. Then worry about the implementation.

The user-visible API that I am using is the basic_string API (C++98 21.3) along with operator const CharT *() and format( const CharT *, va_args ) to allow C-style string interoperability. There are also implementations of the C string API (string.h) to allow fixed_string to interface with C code. The requirements for fixed_string are: [1] prevent buffer overflow on a fixed capacity string (CharT[ n ]); [2] provide a basic_string interface -- this is where part of the complexity comes in [3] provide C-string functions (strcpy, strlen, etc.) [4] allow functions to operate on variable-capacity strings without resorting to template code -- this is where the rest of the complexity comes in My implementation meets the above requirements, although requirement [3] could be more fully implemented (I'm working on this). Requirements 2 and 3 are interface (API) requirements, defined in the C++98 and C90 standards, while 1 and 4 are interface requirements. Despite the basic_string interface being complex, I do not want to drop it (even if that would simplify the class considerably!) However, if there is a simpler way to meet these requirements then I'd be happy to see what it is. Regards, Reece _________________________________________________________________ Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger