I've run across some code that seems to expect that a functional cast of
a class object to its own type will use the class's copy constructor
to initialize a temporary, instead of acting as an identity operation.

Section 5.2.3 of the standard says a functional cast with one argument
is identical in meaning to a regular cast expression -- X(x) is the same
as (X)x.  And 5.2.11 at least implies that casting an object to its own
type is a no-op.

Is the stuff in section 12.1 about invoking the constructor in a
functional type conversion expression supposed to override the
behavior otherwise specified in section 5.2.3 for the 1-argument case,
or only apply to the 0- or multi-argument cases where it is clear that
the appropriate constructor should be called?

-Sandra







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