[ LEWG Kona 2017 ]

Recommend NAD: iostreams aren't used in this way enough to spend committee time on it. However, a paper could change our minds.

[ 2016-04, Issues Telecon ]

This is really a request for an (feature) API. Passing to LEWG.

DR 41, "Ios_base needs clear(), exceptions()" stopped short of providing the interface suggested in its title, but it did require the underlying state to be stored in ios_base. Because rdstate() is also missing, ios_base manipulators relying on iword and pword cannot detect failure. The only safe alternative is to manipulate a derived class, which must be a template.

libc++ already provides the interface as a nonconforming extension. libstdc++ implements the internal state but leaves it frustratingly inaccessible, as specified. Any conforming implementation should be able to provide the interface without ABI problems.