interval_set has overloaded insert methods for both intervals and elements. Is there a reason there insert iterator lacks this ability. The line in the code below *itr = 4; fails to compile. This could be made to compile by: - adding an implicit constructor 'interval( const element& )' for the underlying (discrete) intervals, initializing to [element, element+1), or [element, element]. - adding an overloaded operator=( const element& ) - adding an element_insert_iterator class I've encountered 2 domains now where I need to construct an interval_set<int> from a range of ints. The most natural ways to accomplish this (for me) are: boost::copy( ints, inserter(int_interval_set) ); or boost::copy_range( ints ); Of course I can transform the incoming ints, but this seems a common enough usage pattern for the library to provide. Especially since the lack of this facility is asymmetric to the insert overloads of interval_set. #include <iostream> #define BOOST_ICL_USE_STATIC_BOUNDED_INTERVALS #include #include int main() { typedef boost::icl::interval_set<int> IdSet; typedef IdSet::interval_type IdInterval; IdSet ids; ids.insert(3); boost::icl::insert_iterator<IdSet> itr(ids, ids.end()); *itr = IdInterval(1,2); //*itr = 4; //compile error no viable operator = boost::copy(ids, std::ostream_iterator<IdInterval>(std::cout)); std::cout << "\n"; return 0; }