I meant to mention this for a while : I've written an alternative stringstream class implementation as part of boost::format, with 2 motivations : a. make boost::format compile on platforms that don't provide std::stringstream (gcc-2.95) b. allow more efficient use of stringstream in the context of boost::format (by adding copy-less access to the stringstream's buffer, and allowing reuse of the buffer) Now it's been there working hand in hand with boost::format for a while, compiling ok on mostly all platforms, but I dont know what to do about this class, if I should leave it there undocumented and unmentionned, or document it, or make it a mini-library, or a detail or whatever. IMO this class might interest some users, as it is more flexible than std::stringstream (allowing more efficient uses in some situations), while it includes the original stringstream's interface, keeps its overall design, and ease-of-use. It lies in boost/format/alt_stringstream.hpp (and _impl.hpp) it depends on the rest of boost::format only due to workaround settings (mainly required by gcc-2.95) alt_stringstream provides the features of std::stringstream, plus : void clear_buffer(); // calls seekpos // 0-copy access : Ch * begin() const std::streamsize size() const std::streamsize cur_size() const // copy buffer to string : string_type cur_str() const // [pbase, pptr[ This cur_str() function differ from the std::stringstream str() function, which returns a copy of [pbase, epptr[, thus unaffected by calls to seekpos, actually preventing buffer-reuse. (alt_stringstream defines functions cur_str() and str(), so it can have the same behaviour as std::stringstream if used with str() ) So, what should I do with this class ? -- Samuel