Re: [boost] Re: Smart pointers question - attachment

From: Greg Colvin (gcolvin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-01-29 18:36:40

Comparison of boost gc methods1.. 
      1.. Smart Pointer CTOR 
      This calls handles.deque::push_back and, #ifndef NDEBUG, no_duplicates.set::insert. The void* in set is actually a T* where T is the T in recyclable_base, the base class for cyclic_ptr and weak_ptr. 

      The purpose of the static std::deque handles (in cyclic_ptr.cpp) is: 

        1.. to allow traversal of "all handles in deque three times to collect garbage" (comment above 'void recycler::recycle() throw()' in cyclic_ptr.cpp). 
        2.. to allow the user to specify a finalizer (or, in cyclic_ptr's case, a "deleter") for each instance of the pointee. 
      However, the no_duplicates actually must be used for production code and as well as for debugging; otherwise, if the same pointer is contained in 2 different cyclic_ptr's, then it will be deleted twice.

It is just a coding error if you initialized two different smart pointers with the same raw pointer:  std::auto_ptr and boost::shared_ptr have the same restriction.  So I wouldn't recommend paying the performance price of maintaining a no_duplicates set in production code.