Illustrates the problem described here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15895365/boostbind-implicit-conversion-to-boostfunction-or-function-pointer

bindtest.cpp

#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/function.hpp>
#include <sstream>

using namespace std;

template<class T1>
T1 parse(string arg)
{
	istringstream iss(arg);
	T1 ret;
	iss >> ret;
	return ret;
}

template<class T1>
void run(boost::function<void (T1)> func, string arg)
{
	T1 p1 = parse<T1>(arg);
	func(p1);
}

template<class T1>
void run(void (*func)(T1), string arg)
{
	T1 p1 = parse<T1>(arg);
	(*func)(p1);
}

void test1(int i)
{
	cout << "test1 i=" << i << endl;
}

void test2(int i, string s)
{
	cout << "test2 i=" << i << " s=" << s << endl;
}

int main()
{
	// First usecase
	boost::function<void (int)> f = &test1;
	run(f, "1");
	
	// Second usecase
	run(&test1, "2");
	
	// Third usecase
	run(boost::bind(&test2, _1, "Third usecase"), "3"); // <-- this wont compile
	
	return 0;
}