Something about std::list<> member functions.

[Gawain Bolton]

Dhruv Matani wrote:

>I was wondering why in std::list<>, the functions merge, unique, sort,
>... are implemented twice, once for the less than operator, and once for
>the template argument one. Why can't it be coded just once for the more
>general version, and pass std::less<> to then more general one, when the
>less general one is called?
>
Good question!   But this kind of thing is not limited to the std::list 
class, the generic algorithms in stl_algobase.h and stl_algo.h also 
currently have duplicated code for functions with and without comparison 
objects or predicate objects as they're sometimes called.

Unless there is a good reason for not doing this, I would be happy to 
submit a patch for std::list.

Cheers,


Gawain