Re: [boost] Looking for thoughts on a new smart pointer: shared_ptr_nonnull

Subject: Re: [boost] Looking for thoughts on a new smart pointer: shared_ptr_nonnull
From: Thorsten Ottosen (thorsten.ottosen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-10-08 14:17:05

On 08-10-2013 19:19, Nevin Liber wrote:
> On 7 October 2013 21:18, Gavin Lambert <gavinl_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>>   While it's *possible* that the null came from some global state that will
>> break all future operations, it's more likely that it was some local state
>> within the operation that becomes irrelevant when it starts processing the
>> next operation anyway.
>>
>
> In other words, you are pretending the code knows the root cause of the
> programming bug it was never supposed to have and can magically recover
> from it.
>
> (Not sure what this has to do with Boost anymore...)

We are indeed going in circles. I can respect that some people don't 
want the overhead of the runtime check. I can also respect that people 
don't want to take down the whole server because of a bug in some 
subsystem. Software development is such a diverse field, that it's hard
to find a one true way of doing things.

We just need to find a way to give both camps what they want, since both 
a valid use-cases.

Some libs uses a system of macros to do this, but it's usually to 
enable/disable all exceptions. Others, like Boost.PtrContainer,
allow you to customize the behavior in the type declaration.

kind regards

-Thorsten