Re: [boost] Policy based vectors and pointers

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-08-30 13:38:45

At 01:59 AM 8/27/2001, Greg Colvin wrote:
 >> I've uploaded a new version of my policy based vector and smart pointer
 >> templates to the Files area (policy_based.tgz). This fixes a few bugs I
 >> found in the original version, and adds a new vector construction
 >> function that allows vectors to be initialised with an explicit list of
 >> values.
 >>
 >> Is anyone still interested in this? Several people expressed an 
interest
 >> when I originally mentioned the idea, but nobody commented on the first
 >> version I posted (not even to point out that it was broken :-) ).
 >
 >I'm very interested long term, and very busy short term.
 >But I did just read your .txt and .h files, thanks.
 >
 >For the next few months I mainly care about getting to new
 >versions of scoped_ptr and shared_ptr, and am not convinced
 >a policy based approach is the way to go yet for boost.
 >
 >My main objection is that policy constants are a good way
 >for a library to compress a large number of related by
 >different templates into a single template, but I can't see
 >how to let a user expand the set of constants, so there is
 >a high premium on getting such a complete set of policies
 >that no extension is needed.  And that will take a lot of
 >work.  But perhaps I misunderstand policies.

Since a user can easily add his or her own policies, I'm not sure there 
really is a high premium on having a complete set.  In my mind, the ease of 
adding new policies is one of the main advantages of policy based 
approaches over generative approaches.

--Beman