Re: [boost] Technical session at the October C++ meeting?

From: Greg Colvin (gcolvin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-08-06 12:16:31

From: Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]>
> At 01:13 PM 8/19/2001, John Max Skaller wrote:
> 
>  >Beman Dawes wrote:
>  >>
>  >> At 08:52 PM 8/16/2001, John Max Skaller wrote:
>  >
>  >>  >      Historically, a LOT of interface details of
>  >>  >libraries have been changed.
>  >>
>  >> While that was certainly true in the past, I'm not sure it will be as true
>  >> in the future.
>  >
>  >> Those factors (which led to a lot of changes in the proposals) just aren't
>  >> present with the Boost libraries, which are just plain a lot more mature
>  >> than the material the committee had to work with in the past.
>  >
>  > Really? I see smart_ptr being changed today.
> 
> You see proposals for change.  Smart pointers seem to generate looks of 
> suggestions.  But the basic contents and semantics have been relatively 
> stable (compared to auto_ptr changes before CD1, CD2, and the standard, for 
> example).

I think the core semantics of shared_ptr are well established.
The shared_ptr is still quite recognizably the same concept as
my earliest counted_ptr proposal, which itself was quite similar
to lots of earlier work by others.

The changes over the years have been mainly to the details of
the interface, and I suspect that if the committee accepts
shared_ptr that will be where they will make the most changes.

The changes we will be considering soon are pure interface
extensions. 

And by the way, I don't think shared_ptr will be ready for
standardization in October, and was thinking that the October
session should be a "heads up" to the committee of proposals
that may be coming down the road.  The overall structure of
the Boost project should be presented at a high level, and
a few of the more mature libraries presented in enough detail
to give a good feeling for the nature and quality of our work.