Re: [boost] smart_ptr: sp_collector can't handle STL containers of shared_ptr's

From: Gregory Colvin (gregory.colvin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-05-29 22:49:34

On Thursday, May 29, 2003, at 21:25 America/Denver, Larry Evans wrote:
> Gregory Colvin wrote:
> [snip]
>
>> Do you really need a precise collector?  Boehm's collector works just 
>> fine.
>
> Most people don't, but some do.  In Jones and Lins _Garbage Collection_
> there's mention of "misidentification" or "false" pointers in 
> applications with large compress bitmaps.  Also, for highly connected
> structures, I remember reading that there could be a problem.

So don't allocate bitmaps and such with GC_malloc.  Other than that
the problem seems to be mostly theoretical.

>> If so, I don't think you can do it without compiler support.
>
> I was hoping stl_container.cpp would be as close as possible w/o
> compiler support.

Not close enough for me.

>   I think Detlef also mentioned this somewhere
> in his article.  The closer it is, then the less testing would
> need to be done to change the compiler.

Well, if standard allocators supported proxied pointers you could do
it with a collected allocator.  I think Dinkum's allocators do, not
sure about other standard libraries.