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Also, I would recommend that you either reconsider having the constant member variable, or use a vector<>.

Using a vector<T> won't work in this case, because the STL uses T::operator = in order to copy vector contents into new locations during memory reallocation. And there's no logical way to implement operator = when a const data member is present, which is the cause of this conversation. I could use std::list, since it doesn't do reallocation, but clients using this class in containers will most likely need random access iterators.

Any other ideas?

Easy option: Use a vector. This will give you basically the behavior you want, with the ability to initialize the elements directly. The drawback is that the data will be dynamically allocated.

Another drawback is the interface is now pointers, not references. If you don't mind the dynamic allocation, the vector can be contained by another class, overloading operator[], etc. The Boost Iterator Adapter library works very nicely for providing vector<T>::iterator behavior from a vector::iterator. I can send you our vector-like class which uses adapted iterators if you would like. Re: the moderation. Yes, this is not a boost question, but it is a question boost can provide good solutions for, so where do you draw the line?