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From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-01-28 19:21:16


At 01:42 PM 1/28/2003, David B. Held wrote:

>"Greg Colvin" <Gregory.Colvin_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
>news:5.2.0.9.2.20030128104737.027bcea8_at_rgmgitmail.oraclecorp.com...

>> Also, auto_ptr is an ugly hack that needn't be replicated.
>
>Disavowing your child? ;)

Historical note: auto_ptr<> was one of the few (maybe only) times when the
C++ committee as a whole overrode the recommendation of the Library Working
Group.

Greg and other people in the LWG didn't like auto_ptr<>, preferring what is
now called shared_ptr<>. But we were good soldiers, and accepted the
committee's decision. That meant we had to develop auto_ptr<>, even though
we didn't like it. A lot of us still think it is a minor smart pointer, and
has no place in the standard, except perhaps as an adjunct to more
important smart pointers such as shared_ptr<> and eventually smart_ptr<>.

Greg's 1994 proposal, which was the LWG's choice, is still available at
http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/1994/N0555.pdf What it calls
auto_ptr is now what we call scoped_ptr. Likewise, counted_ptr ->
shared_ptr.

--Beman


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