Re: [boost] Re: uncounted_ptr

From: Greg Colvin (greg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-01-10 11:53:40

----- Original Message ----- 
From: William Kempf <sirwillard_at_[hidden]>
> --- In boost_at_[hidden], "Greg Colvin" <greg_at_c...> wrote:
> > From: William Kempf <sirwillard_at_m...>
> > > That said, I would be very interested in a smart pointer that 
> > > performed similarly to a full blown GC.  In fact, I'd prefer this 
> > > over a real GC.  It would give me complete control when I needed it, 
> > > including the use of RAII harnesses, while making it much simpler  to 
> > > program some constructs in which memory management is the hardest 
> > > issue to deal with.  So my personal vote would be for such a 
> > > submission.  I don't know if the circ_ptr in the vault qualifies, if 
> > > what you have in mind should be considered instead, or if both have 
> > > pros and cons and should both be considered/accepted.
> ...
> > And what is an RAII harness?
> 
> Resource Acquisition In Initialization.  It's the principle behind 
> std::auto_ptr and numerous other C++ constructs.  RAII is not 
> possible (or feasable, at least) in garbage collected languages 
> because you don't know when (or if) the object will be collected.  So 
> even if such a language included destructors (most don't) you rarely 
> can make use of RAII harnesses.

You mean "resource acquisition IS initialization"?  I'm very
familiar with auto_ptr, but I still don't what you mean by
"harness".