Looking back a bit more I find
https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2013/n3508 which is the
original paper proposing it. I can't find any discussion on any_cast
looking ugly though.

Regards,
Peter

On Mon, May 13, 2024 at 10:30 AM Peter Bindels <dascandy_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Hi Ahmad,
>
> Did you look into why the current situation is as it is?
>
> I can find any_cast references back to 2015. I can't seem to find when it
> was introduced, but it's been in Fundamentals TS v2 for a long time before
> making it into C++17.
>
> I can find wg21.link/p0032 which proposes a different syntax.
>
> That said, I think any_cast has the benefit of looking ugly and making
> people think whether it's correct to extract a given value, which is a plus
> IMO. Willing to be convinced otherwise though.
>
> Regards,
> Peter
>
> On Mon, May 13, 2024 at 9:45 AM Ahmed Elbadawy via Std-Proposals <
> std-proposals_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>> Dear C++ Committee,
>>
>> I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to propose an
>> enhancement to the template class std::any in the C++ standard library.
>> The proposed enhancement aims to simplify the usage of std::any by
>> adding a conversion function, thereby eliminating the need for explicit
>> std::any_cast operations.
>>
>> Currently, using std::any requires explicit casting using std::any_cast but
>> adding a conversion function to std::any will allow users to convert the
>> stored value to a specified type directly, without the need for
>> std::any_cast which will
>>
>> 1. Improve Readability: The proposed conversion function makes code
>> more readable by eliminating the need for explicit casts.
>> 2. Simplified Usage: Developers can use the conversion function
>> directly, reducing the complexity of working with std::any.
>>
>> Considering the scenario where std::any is used as an argument to an
>> overloaded function. With the proposed conversion function, we can use the
>> builtin *static_cast* which is more convenient to be used than the
>> template function *std::any_cast.*
>> The attached file is a simple implementation of the *std::any* with the
>> conversion function and simple usage of it, I would appreciate it if you
>> could review the attached file and provide feedback.
>>
>> *Sincerely, Ahmed Elbadawy*
>> --
>> Std-Proposals mailing list
>> Std-Proposals_at_[hidden]
>> https://lists.isocpp.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/std-proposals
>>
>