Interoperability between std::string, ost::String and Gtkmm-2.2

[erik_ohrnberger]

        I've got a gtkmm-2.2 application that stores it's data in the ost
persistent stream files. To date, I've been using the 1.0.x version of the
common C++ library for this persistence function.

        I've noticed that in the 1.0.x versions of the library, the
exceptions for persistent streams basically don't work and the application
just calls abort(). So, I figure that it's time to upgrade to the current
version, who's persistent exception in fact do work.

        While porting to the new version of the library, I noticed that
there is a ost::String class, which is the only way to get strings in and
out of the persistent streams.  However, the gtkmm library is designed to
integrate nicely with std::string. 

        What's the best way to integrate the two packages so that they work
nicely with each other?

        I was considering writing a number of global type conversion
operators, but that didn't seem to work pretty well, and suffered from
numerous compiler errors.

        Then I thought that I should create a sub-class of ost::String to
add the additional type conversion operators to and from std::string in a
nice, quite, and clean manner. But this appears not to work nicely as
desired either.

        I'm open to any suggestions as to how to best accomplish the desired
inter-operability.  Perhaps someone already has done this?

        Thanks,
                Erik.