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2 | Copyright (c) Vladimir Batov 2009-2016 | |
3 | Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. | |
4 | See copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt. | |
5 | ] | |
6 | ||
7 | [section Rationale] | |
8 | ||
9 | I was using textual configuration files extensively and also was processing and preparing considerable amounts of data in XML. Consequently, I had a need for an ['extendible] library that would provide a ['uniform] interface to convert various data between their internal binary representations and external (predominantly textual) representations. | |
10 | ||
11 | The `boost::lexical_cast` library (with its orthogonal and extendible design) looked very promising compared to others (see [@http://www.gotw.ca/publications/mill19.htm The String Formatters of Manor Farm] by H. Sutter for the discussion of alternatives). Unfortunately, | |
12 | ||
13 | * many deployed user types simply did not meet `boost::lexical_cast` requirements (namely, [@http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/concept/DefaultConstructible ['Default Constructibility]]); | |
14 | * failure to convert a user-provided configuration parameter was not that rare or exceptional to justify the hassle and the overhead of exception processing and, consequently, additional flexibility (['if], ['when] and ['how]) to handle conversion failures was needed; | |
15 | * additional conversion-related functionality (such as formatting and locale support) were needed. | |
16 | ||
17 | The original hope was to see `boost::lexical_cast` extended to be applicable to a wider range of deployment scenarios. However, after discussions with Kevlin Henney (the `boost::lexical_cast` author) and in the Boost Developers forum it was collectively decided that the desired extensions were not compatible with the original design and the idea of what `boost::lexical_cast` embodied and, therefore, a new component with richer interface and functionality was needed. That decision resulted in the development of ['Boost.Convert] described in this document. | |
18 | ||
19 | [endsect] |