Re: Any interest in a weak pointer?

From: bill_kempf (williamkempf_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-14 11:33:10

--- In Boost-Users_at_y..., "terekhov" <terekhov_at_d...> wrote:
> > A) It's not available on every platform.
> > B) It's a C library that fails to address several C++ issues.
> > C) It has it's own issues with many of these topics, including 
> memory 
> > visibility.
> > 
> > A boost solution can't address all of the above concerns, but it 
> can 
> > come closer than POSIX and helps to define what's required when a 
> > threading library is included in the C++ standard.
> 
> http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=3C33115D.E7EEC40%40web.de

A) Again, POSIX is C not C++.  If the C++ standard were to adopt the 
POSIX pthread API and just address the concerns you mention in this 
post (and you missed several, including memory visibility rules that 
POSIX *DOESN'T* quite get correct) then that library would be usable 
in C++ programs, but POSIX isn't.  We aren't the standard, so to use 
threads correctly we need our own library that addresses these issues.
B) You didn't addres A in my original post.
C) A C API for multi-threading is not what most people want.  They 
want a more flexible C++ API that avoids things that are considered 
dangerous in C, such as void pointers.

Bill Kempf