[LC++]The behavior of istream_iterator<string> as a pointer.

[Shaul Karl]

Aren't the increment operator and comparison work with 
istream_iterator<string>?

The following program tries to copy part of its own source file 
(main.cc) to cout.

$ cat main.cc

#include <algorithm>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main() 
{
    ifstream input("main.cc");
    istream_iterator<string> iter1(input), iter2, eof;
    iter1 = find(iter1, eof, "main()");
    iter2 = find(iter1, eof, "}");
    for (; iter1 != iter2; iter1++) cout << *iter1;
    cout << "\n";
}

$ 

When executing it, all I get is the newline from the last statement:

$ ./main 

$

Further more, adding the lines

    cout << "*iter1 = " << *iter1 << "  *iter2 = " << *iter2 << '\n';
    iter1 == iter2 ? cout << "iter1 == iter2\n"
                      : cout << "iter1 != iter2\n";

just before the for loop reveals that

    *iter1 = main()  *iter2 = }
    iter1 == iter2

How could this be? Aren't input iterators supposed to be somewhat like 
input pointers?

The compiler is g++-3.0.
-- 

    Shaul Karl
    email: shaulka(at-no-spam)bezeqint.net 
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