Re: [boost] Smart pointers and array types

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-01-07 14:46:03

From: "Howard Hinnant" <hinnant_at_[hidden]>

> Peter Dimov wrote on 1/7/2001 12:50 PM
> >I think that such an "overloading" of a class template is acceptable if
> >auto_ptr<T> behaves similarly in the two cases, enabling generic code to
> >transparently operate on both variants.

[...]

> To tell you the truth, I'm not sure generic programming is very much of
> an argument here one way or the other.

I'm trying to answer the question 'are auto_ptr<X> and auto_ptr<X[]> similar
enough to justify the same name' with 'they are if client code can use
auto_ptr<T> without having to determine whether T=X[].'

Whether this is the correct answer remains to be determined. :-)

> But yes, auto_ptr<T[]> could be
> used in this environment (combined with a few utilities):

(code omitted)

No, this is not what I had in mind. The code checks whether it's dealing
with the array version. Whether it's called auto_ptr<X[]> or auto_array<X>
makes no difference.

--
Peter Dimov
Multi Media Ltd.