[boost] Re: SmartPtr (Loki) - auto_ptr/move c'tor issue

From: Andrei Alexandrescu (andrewalex_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-01-29 18:04:08

"David B. Held" <dheld_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
news:b19ic3$m48$1_at_main.gmane.org...
> Indeed.  My new suggested change involves breaking orthogonality
> in a way that I think even Beman suggested, if memory serves me
> correctly.

Ideally, SmartPtr should orchestrate the workings of the policies together
while they are aloof of each other.

In this particular case, if we are to apply this approach, it seems like
SmartPtr should detect that the appropriate ownership policy fails to
construct, and should say "never mind" to the storage policy by triggering
its destruction. This sounds like a reasonable approach to me.

It looks like SmartPtr cannot apply this simple algorithm due to syntactic
and semantic issues of the language, which some (including me) deem as
problems with the language.

So my suggestion is to work around the language instead of breaking
orthogonality gratuitously. I believe this is NOT an example when
orthogonality plays against you.

Andrei