GCC bug with const members
I found my first GCC bug the other day. I was reading Herb Sutters' Exceptional C++ book, and noticed some interesting advice about auto_ptr. He suggests that we use const auto_ptr wherever possible, and also use auto_ptr member data for classes. The member data suggestion is sort of strange, because it ignores his first suggestion and uses non-const auto_ptr members. This, in turn, leads to more code to disable class copy constructors and assignment.
The better solution is to use a const auto_ptr member, which is initialized upon construction. Copy and assignment constructors should be automatically disabled. And they are in Intel's C++ compiler, Microsoft's, and Comeau's. Unfortunately, GCC has a bit of a problem. The default copy constructor is perfectly willing to ignore const constraints on const member copy operations.
I posted to the USENET C++ moderated group and confirmed that this was a GCC bug, then submitted to GCC's bugzilla.