Hi -- I'm loving how easy shared_ptr makes object handling, but am not sure about how to use weak_ptr.

Should I use it in places where previously I would have, say, returned a const reference?

For example:

  struct MyClass {

    const  OtherObject & other_object() const;

  };

Would become:

  struct MyClass {

    weak_ptr<const OtherObject> other_object() const;

  };

Or is this wasteful, having weak_ptrs construct from shared_ptrs every time I want to access an member object?

Or have I missed the point completely? ;)

One convention I thought I might adopt would be like this:

  struct MyClass {

    void set_other_object( shared_ptr<OtherObject> ); // setter

    weak_ptr<OtherObject> get_other_object();           // non-const getter

    const OtherObject & other_object() const;             // const getter

  };

Of course, that could be all kinds of dumb for all kinds of reasons I don't know about. :)

Cheers,

   Doug.