Re: [Boost-users] Suggestion for boost`s smart pointers

From: Howard Hinnant (hinnant_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-11-29 14:04:47

On Nov 29, 2006, at 12:36 PM, Peter Dimov wrote:

> I'm not interested in how free it is, just in how useful it is. :-)

<nod> If I were to scale usefulness as:

1.   Would never use it.
2.   ...
3.   Might use it once in a while.
4.   ...
5.   I'd find it handy sometimes.
6.   ...
7.   ...
8.   Lots of uses for it.
9.   ...
10.  Have to have it.

It might go something like:

unique_ptr<T>   : 10
unique_ptr<T[]> :  5
unique_ptr<T[N]>:  3

If it costs me a bundle to support a 3 or a 5, I wouldn't even  
consider them.  But these have very low costs in terms of:

*  Conceptual complexity (simple, intuitive interface)
*  Run time (none if not used, cheap if used)
*  Code size (none if not used, cheap if used)
*  Compile time (extremely little)
*  Implementation support (little)

(those are listed in order of importance, imho of course)

-Howard