Re: [boost] Re: Loki SmartPtr study: Policy orthogonality issues

From: Andrei Alexandrescu (andrewalex_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-07 14:58:32

>   Another thing that I wanted to remark is that having SmartPtr to be
> inherited from PlicyAdaptor ( or separate policies like in MC++D ) is
> brealing encapsulation.

If practical experience is of any relevance:

* Users complained about SmartPtr being bigger than it ought to. That is due
to multiple inheritance. If I understand correctly, a compiler is not
allowed to appy EBO to all base classes in a multiple-inheritance scheme. A
single inheritance solution with nested templates would avoid this problem.

* Users did not complain about SmartPtr being limited, unnecessarily
complex, hard to use, or not validating their designs.

Andrei