The future of the name "ref"

[Alex Martelli]

On Saturday 05 January 2002 03:06, David Abrahams wrote:
> I really want to get rid of this name by its current meaning. One reason
	...
> as its template parameter (ref is just a typedef for
> reference<PyObject>), and "reference" would be a far superior name for
> what we're currently calling "ref".
	...
> I realize that this would be a change that breaks backward-compatibility,
> but now is the time to do that, since the new standard-conformant system
> will neccessarily break backward-compatibility for some users. I'd like
> to hear if there are any serious objections or modifications to the idea.

Speaking as a _user_ of Boost, and particularly Boost Python (haven't 
contributed to it, but I've used it quite a bit), I'm +1 on this change.  

Yes, it's backwards-incompatible, but in a way that lets me big-bang- 
migrate my old BPL-using sources to the new regime by one pass of global 
search and replace -- I can deal with that.


Alex