David B. Held <dheld@codelogicconsulting.com> wrote:

Maxim Yegorushkin wrote:

...

I've been working on a small library - an immutable C++ string. Now it is in usable state and has been put in use in a couple of real projects. Although it needs further polishing, I would like to know is there any interest in such a library?

Here is the link: http://conststring.sourceforge.net/

First, I'll say that yes, I am very interested in a library such as this. Second, let me say that "const_string<>" and "immutable string" don't seem like the right terms to me. The fact that you can call operator?=() and append() on it tell me that there is little that is "const" or "immutable" about it. It seems to me that "cow_string<>" would be more appropriate, but perhaps others have different opinions.

I once wrote a string template class similar to this, though without the clever storage policy. Unfortunately this was done in the course of my employment and I left that job without having got permission to make it public. Anyway, I think the name I settled on was atomic_string.

I suppose its not completely a COW string, since you don't support the full set of mutating operations. <snip>

It never modifies buffers once they've been initialised, so it has no use for COW. Ben.