Re: [boost] Re: Re: Smart pointers: One more implementation +question

From: David Bradley (dbradley_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-02-05 18:37:19

Peter Dimov wrote:

>How do you write a factory function that doesn't pass a smart pointer across
>library boundaries?
>  
>
I guess it depends on what you're defining as library. I'm thinking of 
things like DLL's and Unix style shared libraries as opposed to staticly 
linked libraries. In these types of libraries you can't assume the 
allocation routines are the same, and calling delete on a pointer that 
was new'd within the library is a dangerous practice. This is really up 
to the library implementor, though. What this means is that often 
library implementors often provide secondary allocators/deallocators for 
users to call instead of delete to destroy an object. From what I can 
tell, since smart_ptr has no traits, there's no way for library 
implementors to deal with this scenario, other than to abandon smart 
pointers and use raw pointers across library bounders, or use a policy 
based system that would allow them more control.

David Bradley