Re: [Boost-users] shared_ptr vs pass object by reference

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] shared_ptr vs pass object by reference
From: Patrick Loney (patrick.loney_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-07-28 11:50:28

>> 
>>> If I can pass the object by reference to a function, then is there a
>>> need to use shared pointers?
>> 
>> Not if you know the lifetime of your object and it won't be deleted before the
>> function has finished. You may find scoped pointers useful though:
>> http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_43_0/libs/smart_ptr/scoped_ptr.htm


> I use shared_ptr like a "poor-man's" garbage collection. Instead of having

Ahh, being a c++ developer I see garbage collection as a poor man's raii (you can't even control when something is destructed for gods' sake ;))

> Maybe I am using shared_ptr wrong but at least for my project it seems to work well. 

Scoped_ptr offers the automatic memory management you discuss without the additional functionality of shared_ptr (i.e. shared_ptr is a scoped_ptr with added reference counting functionality)