Re: [boost] Safe bool idiom

From: Richard Hadsell (hadsell_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-09-11 09:05:37

Daniel Frey wrote:

> ...
> if (ptr.get()) ...
> if (ptr) ...       // Less efficient.
> ...
> As I think that efficiency is more important than a nice error 
> message, I'd like to propose changing shared_ptr's code appropriately 
> to avoid the overhead imposed by the current safe-bool-idiom. Comments?

I was interested in this thread, because I use scoped_ptr and 
scoped_array extensively, and performance is important for my 
application.  I was glad to see the bool operator added to those 
classes, and I laboriously changed all my 'if (ptr.get())'s to 'if 
(ptr)', not realizing the compiler might not generate code as efficient.

Is it true that the discussion applies to the scoped_ classes as well as 
shared_ptr?  And is someone willing to fix them, too?

I would like to avoid changing back to the 'if (ptr.get())' form, if 
there might be a fix in the near future.

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