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c++ - Literal Strings as const char *?

I am a little confused. Am using DMC 8.44 (beta) which in which literal strings
are taken as constant. Except when they aren't...

Given the following

void foo (char *);

main ()

{ char *p = "hello";
int f= 1;
foo("hello");
foo(p);
foo (f ? "a" : "b");
foo (f ? p :  "b");
}   


foo (f ? "a" : "b");
^
test.cpp(9) : Error: need explicit cast for function parameter 1 to get
from: char const *
to  : char *
foo (f ? p :  "b");
^
test.cpp(10) : Error: need explicit cast for function parameter 1 to get
from: char const *
to  : char *
--- errorlevel 1

It seems to me that the first of the function calls should be an error. Except -
I guess - that this would break so much existing code as to be useless. But then
if we are to allow that, then why not the tertiaries? 

Cheers,
John.
Jul 25 2005