Re: [boost] Re: Re: Re: Re: what happened to allocators in boost?

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-08-26 13:30:48

Andreas Huber wrote:
> [snip]
>>> However, for a certain class of systems one almost never can avoid
>>> customization, no matter how ingenious the platform is.
>>
>> This may well be true, but I'm not convinced that platform-specific
>> customizations (an implementation detail) absolutely need to be
>> supported by a portable mechanism affecting the interface.
>
> I see your point but what is the alternative? Forcing people to
> replace global new/delete?

In a word, yes. Although replacing global new/delete is forced by the system
allocator being not up to the task and not by us.

I understand that for some applications region-based memory management can
be a big performance win. I also understand that some (uncommon in my
experience) cases can't be supported by a global allocator (when two
independent regions are active at once, in a single thread.) But I'm not
sure that Allocators (as spelled in the standard) are the answer, and I'm
entertaining the thought that in the long term this kind of customization
harms the C++ community. Maybe not one's particular corner of the community,
but the community as a whole.