[ 2010-01-17: ]

Howard expresses concern that the current direction of the proposed wording outlaws expressions such as:

if (!comp(x, y))

Daniel provides wording which addresses that concern.

The previous wording is saved here:

Change [alg.sorting] p2:

Compare is used as a function object. The return value of the function call operator applied to an object of type Compare, when converted to type bool, yields true if the first argument of the call which returns true if the first argument is less than the second, and false otherwise. Compare comp is used throughout for algorithms assuming an ordering relation. It is assumed that comp will not apply any non-constant function through the dereferenced iterator.