From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-12-10 09:42:07
Daniel Krügler (nee Spangenberg) wrote:
>
> - Using ptrdiff_t (as in the smart pointer classes) matches the
> built-in signature of array-accesible pointers. We can view
> an array smart pointer as an interface-wrapper of such a
> native array.
>
> - Using the size_type member of the array class template
> supports the Standard Container Requirements, so we
> have some consistency here, also.
The standard containers can only get away with size_t because they know
their size and can assert(index < size()); when a negative argument is
passed, it is silently converted to something that is usually larger than
size().