https://svn.boost.org/trac10/ticket/8742 <p> All STL comparison operators are inline, but the ones in boost/operators.hpp aren't. It would be a great improvement if they were inline, and there is absolutely no reason for them not to be. </p> en-us /htdocs/site/boost.png https://svn.boost.org/trac10/ticket/8742 Trac 1.4.3 Daniel Frey Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:36:39 GMT https://svn.boost.org/trac10/ticket/8742#comment:1 https://svn.boost.org/trac10/ticket/8742#comment:1 <ul> <li><strong>status</strong> <span class="trac-field-old">new</span> → <span class="trac-field-new">closed</span> </li> <li><strong>resolution</strong> → <span class="trac-field-new">invalid</span> </li> </ul> <p> They are automatically inlined by the compiler if applicable, the inline-keyword you see in your STL code is probably there for different reasons. Try to benchmark your code (don't forget to enable optimizations) and you'll find that the inline-keyword wouldn't make a difference. </p> Ticket