Smart pointers was RE: [GD-General] Compile times

[brian h. <bri...@py...>]

> Hmm, I've seen smart pointers used on several projects and they have 
> never caused any problems. What sort of "ugly things" are you 
> referring to?

Assuming that we're defining "smart pointer" as ref-counted, 
templatized pointer access, then here are the typical bugaboos:

- non-deterministic destruction (a problem with general GC as well)

- extremely slack model of ownership (a problem with general GC as well)

- cascading destruction if you deref a root node

- array support can be iffy depending on the implementation

- cycles

- bugs that arise if your implementation doesn't properly handle stack, 
static/global variables, or "special" memory that requires its own de-
allocation (pointer to surfaces, pointer to AGP memory, etc.)

All that said, there are some pretty solid implementations (Boost?) out 
there that I believe address at least the key issues.

My gripes are generally more of the subjective stuff -- I think it 
obfuscates code, lends to programmer laziness because there's a poor 
concept of memory ownership and, deep down inside (okay, maybe right 
there at the surface), I just feel that retrofitting automatic memory 
management on a language that was clearly designed for manual memory 
management is a Bad Idea.

-Hook