Re: [boost] [interest] rich-typed smart pointers

Subject: Re: [boost] [interest] rich-typed smart pointers
From: Jonathan Wakely (jwakely.boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-10-07 11:21:11

On 7 October 2013 14:34, Julian Gonggrijp wrote:
> Jonathan Wakely wrote:
>
>> On 7 October 2013 11:01, Julian Gonggrijp wrote:
>>>
>>> The std::weak_ptr detects the dangling pointer and changes it into a
>>> null pointer. This makes sense, because null pointers are easier to
>>> detect. However, as the surrounding code probably relies on a live
>>> pointer (because dangling pointers are never planned) the program is
>>> still going to fail. This is what I meant by "disaster".
>>
>> Why is it going to fail?  Expired pointers (not dangling ones) most
>> certainly are planned, and weak_ptr is designed to support (and
>> detect) that case.  Users of std::weak_ptr know that it needs to be
>> checked, and the explicit conversion that is needed makes it hard to
>> forget to do that. Either you say:
>>
>>    std::shared_ptr<X> sp(wp);
>>
>> which will throw if weak_ptr.expired() is true, or you use the
>> non-throwing form in a conditional:
>>
>>    if (auto sp = wp.lock())
>>      /* ... */ ;
>>    else
>>      /* deal with it */ ;
>
> Of course a programmer can avoid the problem by doing the right thing.
> That's not what my paragraph above was about. As I stated in the
> follow-up, the same reasoning applies to the rtp pointers.

Does it?  How do I tell if an rtp::weak_ptr is dangling or not?

You seem to be claiming that because sloppy programmers can forget to
check a std::weak_ptr for validity that it's no safer than a type that
doesn't even support such checking for validity. I say screw the
sloppy programmers, the type that supports checking is safer than one
that doesn't.  With std::weak_ptr I can write my code to allow expired
pointers and handle them correctly, but IIUC with the rtp
(soon-to-be-renamed) weak_ptr I just have to "do the right thing" to
avoid the possibility of expired pointers.