On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 8:16 PM Will Hawkins via Std-Discussion
<std-discussion_at_[hidden]> wrote:
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>
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> On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 7:15 PM Will Hawkins <hawkinsw_at_[hidden]> wrote:
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>> Hello everyone!
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>> I hope that these are reasonable questions and not a waste of time.
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>> First, I have been reading the requirements for forward iterators in 23.3.5.5 and am focused on Paragraph 2 [1].
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>> Given,
>> - The vector v in std::vector<int> v{}; is an empty sequence, and
>> - The vector iterator v_it in std::vector<v>::iterator v_it{}; is a value-initialized iterator that meets the requirements of forward iterator,
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>> is it specified (per Note 1 of Paragraph 2) that
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>> v.end() == v_it
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>> ?
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> After further discussion with another language expert, I have been convinced that the paragraph does not specify that v.end() must equal v_it. Rather, it only specifies that
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> v_it == u_it
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> where
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> std::vector<v>::iterator v_it{};
> std::vector<v>::iterator u_it{};
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> Is this the correct conclusion to draw from that paragraph?
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> My confusion arose from the use of the phrase "same empty sequence" in Note 1. I was reading that to mean "all empty sequences of the same type".
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> I would love to know why Note 1 was included. It seems to add ambiguity rather than clarify. Thoughts?

It seems pretty clear to me. There are three facts at play:

1: Forward-iterators specify locations within a half-open range.

2: Only iterators into the same range can be compared.

3: Value initialized iterators compare equal to other
value-initialized iterators.

The conclusion of these is that all value-initialized iterators are
logically an iterator into the same empty range. This is why it is a
non-normative annotation rather than a hard rule.