CPP13 — 1.16.3 Extraction from any

The question is about 99-07-41.pdf, as far as I know the latest C++ mapping specification. "1.41.5 Any Class" prescribes "Boolean operator>>=(const Any&, const char*&);" for unbounded strings, and "1.16.3 Extraction from any" says that unbounded strings are extracted by value. This seems to be contradictory: I seem to remember that const char* cannot be delete'd, though I don't find it in ISO/IEC 14882:1998(E). But, regardless of anything imposed by C++, the current mapping precludes a safe technique like (safe as in exception-proof): >> String_var theString; if(!(theAny>>=theString.out()))

<< I therefore propose that the mapping be changed to "Boolean operator>>=(const Any&, char*&);". This seems to work all right on my implementation (RayORB), for gcc 3.2 (MS VC++ 6.0 doesn't seem to care one way or the other, but I suppose that is wrong, although I'm not entirely sure).