Why don't iostream objects overload operator bool?

Question

In this answer I talk about using a std::ifstream object\'s conversion to bool to test whether the stream is still in a good state. I looked in th

Answer 1

This is an instance of the "safe bool" problem.

Here is a good article: http://www.artima.com/cppsource/safebool.html .

C++0x helps the situation with explicit conversion functions, as well as the change that Kristo mentions. See also Is the safe-bool idiom obsolete in C++11? .