Re: [boost] Loki SmartPtr study: Policy orthogonality issues

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-07 15:44:07

At 08:10 AM 1/6/2002, Peter Dimov wrote:

 >From: "Andrei Alexandrescu" <andrewalex_at_[hidden]>
 >> * I happen to think that separate policies orchestrated by smart_ptr 
form
 >a
 >> better design for smart_ptr than nested ones. Maybe it's me, but I 
prefer
 >> checking to have a different interface than storage.
 >
 >Pros: policies are smaller, have a fixed interface.
 >Cons: can't replace the plumbing in smart_ptr.
 >
 >The other approach, where smart_ptr is an empty shell and everything 
comes
 >from policies (components) (well, except constructors, assignment and 
swap)
 >is the exact opposite. :-)

That's it in a nutshell.  Nice summation.

The plumbing that can't be replaced includes public interface.  The 
framework knows too much about the public interface.  The policies should 
be free to alter it.  Much more powerful.  Able to cope with arrays, for 
example.

--Beman