[boost] ScopeGuard

From: scleary_at_[hidden]
Date: 2002-06-21 12:48:17

I've messed around in the past with different versions of classes that would
run arbitrary code when destroyed.  Here's some different functionality that
I've found useful:

  . Allow *any* action to be run; Boost.Functional can already support this;
why have ScopeGuard duplicate this functionality?
  . Have a type of ScopeGuard that wraps its action in try...catch, similar
to the article, but have another type that does not.
  . Have a type of ScopeGuard that only runs its action if the destructor
was called as part of stack unwinding, not normal block scope exit (useful
for "rollback" operations).
  . Have a type of ScopeGuard that follows strict scoping rules, but have
another type whose scope can be "transferred" to a calling function.

When you start looking at the different useful types of ScopeGuard classes,
two things become apparent:
  1) It would be best as a policy-designed class
  2) It's very close to a SmartPtr.  So close, in fact, that I make the
claim that a ScopeGuard *is* a SmartPtr.

Food for thought. :)

        -Steve
http://my.voyager.net/~shammah/