title: WTF does WTF represent in the WebKit code base?
body: <p>I downloaded <a href="https://github.com/chromium/chromium" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Chromium</a>'s code base and ran across the <a href="https://github.com/chromium/chromium/tree/master/third_party/blink/renderer/platform/wtf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WTF namespace</a>.</p>
  <pre><code>namespace WTF {
      /*
       * C++'s idea of a reinterpret_cast lacks sufficient cojones.
       */
      template&lt;typename TO, typename FROM&gt;
      TO bitwise_cast(FROM in)
      {
          COMPILE_ASSERT(sizeof(TO) == sizeof(FROM), WTF_wtf_reinterpret_cast_sizeof_types_is_equal);
          union {
              FROM from;
              TO to;
          } u;
          u.from = in;
          return u.to;
      }
  } // namespace WTF
  </code></pre>
  <p>Does this mean what I think it means? Could be so, the <code>bitwise_cast</code> implementation specified here will not compile if either <code>TO</code> or <code>FROM</code> is not a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_Old_Data_Structures" rel="nofollow noreferrer">POD</a> and is not (AFAIK) more powerful than C++ built in <code>reinterpret_cast</code>.</p>
  <p>The only point of light I see here is the nobody seems to be using <code>bitwise_cast</code> in the Chromium project.</p>