Section: 24.3.5.5 [forward.iterators] Status: CD1 Submitter: Matt Austern Opened: 1999-11-19 Last modified: 2016-01-28
Priority: Not Prioritized
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Discussion:
In table 74, the return type of the expression *a is given
as T&, where T is the iterator's value type.
For constant iterators, however, this is wrong. ("Value type"
is never defined very precisely, but it is clear that the value type
of, say, std::list<int>::const_iterator is supposed to be
int, not const int.)
Proposed resolution:
In table 74, in the *a and *r++ rows, change the
return type from "T&" to "T&
if X is mutable, otherwise const T&".
In the a->m row, change the return type from
"U&" to "U& if X is mutable,
otherwise const U&".
[Tokyo: The LWG believes this is the tip of a larger iceberg; there are multiple const problems with the STL portion of the library and that these should be addressed as a single package. Note that issue 180 has already been declared NAD Future for that very reason.]
[Redmond: the LWG thinks this is separable from other constness issues. This issue is just cleanup; it clarifies language that was written before we had iterator_traits. Proposed resolution was modified: the original version only discussed *a. It was pointed out that we also need to worry about *r++ and a->m.]