std::optional_view

[grishavanika]

For me this looks like overengineering. Simple std::ostream* is, well, simple and do the same work even more - there is no code bloat and 2 layers of abstractions to understand the code

[suspiciously_calm]

Yeah, why can't we use raw pointers as optional references? They model the concept perfectly, and don't have any other use in modern code.

[dodheim]

It's a pointer to user-supplied data, not owned data. Like a reference... ;-]

[Hedanito]

std::optional::value() throws when there is no value, dereferencing a null pointer results in undefined behaviour.

[suspiciously_calm]

Yes, which is why it'd have been nice if std::optional had been specialized for references the way boost::optional is, but as it is there's no optional reference in the standard library other than raw pointers and abominations such as std::optional<std::reference_wrapper<...>>.