Re: [libxml++] Adding STL-container-like methods to Node instead of returning container instance (xmlwrapp)

[Stefan Seefeld <seefeld sympatico ca>]

Jonathan Wakely wrote:

> What if a NodeList cannot be constructed from a const NodeList ?
> e.g. its copy ctor takes a non-const reference like auto_ptr, or it has
> private copy ctor to make it non-copyable.

a const container of objects is not the same as a container of const
objects. What you are describing is a const container, while what we
want is a container of const objects.

> That would allow a const Node to return a const NodeList, which can't be
> turned into a non-const NodeList, and so will only yield read-only
> const_iterators.

yeah, that may work.

> It might still be necessary to have a separate ConstNodeList class, but
> IMHO it would be better if "deep-constness" can be done correctly with a
> single NodeList class.

well, I don't think it can (conceptually). That's the point of defining 
'const_iterator' instead of just having 'const iterator'.

Stefan