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

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-02-03 12:50:19

At 09:46 PM 2/2/2003, Howard Hinnant wrote:

 >Could someone review the motivations for wanting an implicit conversion
 >to T* ?  I'm failing to come up with any myself.

It is useful when it is desirable for the smart pointer to mimic a built-in 
pointer as closely as possible.

One case where that happens is when making extensive use of a third-party 
library which passes a lot of arguments as raw pointers. Writing p.get() a 
great deal tends to make code less readable.

Another case is when trying to toughen up legacy code by replacing a raw 
pointer variable with a smart pointer. Changes are minimized if the smart 
pointer mimics a raw pointer closely.

To me, a major benefit of a policy based design is to be able to 
accommodate a wide range of features, including those which find only 
limited use.

If a policy based smart pointer can't accommodate a wide range of features, 
I start to wonder if the design itself is inflexible and flawed. That's why 
I worry a lot about whether a given PBSP design can handle apparently 
marginal uses.

--Beman