Another day of being surprised by C++

typedef int (*functiontype)();
int x = 10;

functiontype a,b;
a = []() -> int { return 10; };   // OK
b = [&x]() -> int {return x; }; // Type error

My intuition had said the latter should work; after all, the only thing that changed was the addition of a capture expression.

However, this changes the type of the lambda so that it's no longer coercable to a regular function (and in fact, others I've talked to suggest that the surprising thing is that the assignment to a even works.)

sigh.

There is a work around:

#include <functional> 
typedef std::function<int()> functiontype;

It's funny: Before working with C++ lambdas, I had been thinking they would provide huge amounts of power when working with (and possibly providing!) C/C++ API interfaces. Alas, they are special beasts.