[Boost-users] shared_ptr vs ordinary pointers

From: Merrill Cornish (merrill.cornish_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-11-26 14:00:16

With an ordinary C++ pointer, if I have a BaseClass and a DerivedClass derived
from BaseClass, then I can do

    BaseClass* objectPtr;
    objectPtr = new DerivedClass();

Later, if BaseClass has a virtual destructor, I can call delete(objectPtr) and the
DerivedClass destructor will be called.

Now, does this work with shared_ptr?

    shared_ptr<BaseClass> objectPtr;
    objectPtr = shared_ptr<DerivedClass>(new DerivedClass());

and later, delete(objectPtr).

Does any of the magic going on behind the scenes prevent shared_ptrs from
being used like this?

Merrill