[GIL] compile time concerning apply_operation and explicit instantiation

Hi,

I'm using GIL's dynamic image extension, namely any_image_views in certain places.
However on every occasion where an any_image_view is used I have to include apply_operation.hpp so the operations can be instantiated.
On gcc-4.3.2 the inclusion of this header raises the compilation time at least tenfold.
Somewhere on this list I found the claim that gil::variant is supposed to reduce compilation time over boost::variant but for at least gcc-4.3.2 this is untrue. There are several places in which I use boost::variant and even with binary visitation the compilation time is barely unnoticable.

To work around this problem, I tried to explicitly instantiate the functions generated for my any_image_view. Trying this technique with apply_operation and detail::destructor_op failed. Looking at nm's output told me that what I explicitly instantiated and what the binary needs had at least its mpl::vector elements reversed.

So, I basically have two questions:
1) Wouldn't it be nicer to use boost::variant for gil, too? As far as I can see it does everything that is needed plus it compiles a lot faster (at least on gcc).
2) Is it possible to explicitly instantiate the apply_operation function with the needed operations and if how so? If someone needs the code I tried and the error messages, I can post them.

Philipp