Re: [boost] smart pointers and the "pimpl idiom"

From: Kevlin Henney (kevlin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-05-05 03:26:08

In message <20000504211352.18595.qmail_at_[hidden]>, Dietmar
Kuehl <dietmar_kuehl_at_[hidden]> writes
[...]
>As a result, I decided that the smart pointers currently available are
>unfortunately not suitable for my purpose and I hacked another one
>which I called 'pimpl_ptr' for now:
[...]
>Basically this is supposed to work similar to 'shared_ptr' but with
>two major differences:
>
>- To use this pointer, the type has to be derived from a common base
>  class which is actually the type stored inside the smart pointer:
>  to obtain a pointer or a reference, the pointer is cast with
>  static_cast.
>
>- Since there is a common base class, there is a logical place where
>  the count is stored, too: It is a member of the base class, ie. this
>  smart pointer is somewhat intrusive but it is anyway due to the base
>  class.
[...]
>Any thoughts?

An alternative non-intrusive approach is documented in the Counted Body
Techniques under the "More" section of the website. I'm planning to
boostify the code and pop it into the vault at some point to get some
feedback.
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