[boost] Re: shared_ptr/weak_ptr and thread-safety

From: Alexander Terekhov (terekhov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-05-24 10:21:23

"William E. Kempf" wrote:
[...]
> Things in the standard library aren't thread safe, unless an
> implementation chooses to make it so.  The standard doesn't specify
> *anything* about threads, including the thread safety of any operations.
> 
> Obviously, everyone knows that.  I'm stating it now to make a point.  When
> the standard finally does have something to say about threads, I'm not
> sure that it's a given that we'll be able to say "things in the standard
> library are as thread safe as an int" (or what many call thread-neutral).
> If some standard "thing" *must* rely on shared state (not a given for
> string, like it is for shared_ptr), I can certainly have sympathy with
> those who want control over whether or not a particular instance of this
> thing needs any synchronization.

Right, and, just to add one more link to a rather interesting thread:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3DB98DED.E9F10490%40web.de
(Subject: Re: Memory isolation)

here I was talking about kinda "thread_safety::unsafe" allocators... 
which would not only save some processing cycles due to lack of sync, 
but COULD also save a whole lot of *storage* due to lack of "memory 
isolation" (it's needed for "strong" thread-safe allocators, "basic" 
thread-safe ones aside for a moment)...

regards,
alexander.

--
"For your information, this subject was discussed at the last meeting 
 of the British C++ standards panel"
                                           -- http://tinyurl.com/ckgf